Inversion of sparse photometric data of asteroids using triaxial ellipsoid shape models and a Lommel-Seeliger scattering law
Journal
Date Issued
2015
Author(s)
Description
Acknowledgments AC acknowledges the support received from the European Science Foundation (ESF) for the activity entitled Gaia Research for European Astronomy Training, which made possible his visit of one week at the University of Helsinki. He also thank the Institut de Mecanique Celeste et Calcul des Ephmrides (IMCCE) in Paris for the invitation to spend some weeks in Paris, working on this project. Research supported, in part, by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) under Contract no. I/015/07/0 , and by the Academy of Finland (project No. 1257966 ). The authors are thankful to Olli Wilkman for kindly providing the numerical scattering law for their perusal.
Abstract
The inversion of sparse photometric data of asteroids to derive from them information about the spin and shape properties of the objects is a hot topic in the era of the Gaia space mission. We have used a rigorous analytical treatment of the Lommel-Seeliger light-scattering law computed for the particular case of bodies having the shapes of ideal triaxial ellipsoids, and we have implemented this in the software developed for the treatment of Gaia photometric data for asteroids. In a set of numerical simulations, the performances of the photometry inversion code improve significantly with respect to the case in which purely geometric scattering is taken into account. When applied to real photometric data of asteroids obtained in the past by the Hipparcos satellite, however, we do not see any relevant improvement of the performances, due to the poor accuracy of these measurements. These results suggest that the role played by the light-scattering properties of asteroid surfaces is indeed relevant. On the other hand, any refined treatment of light-scattering effects cannot improve the reliability of photometric inversion when the quantity and quality of available data are much worse than what we expect to obtain from Gaia.
Volume
118
Start page
221
Issn Identifier
0032-0633
Ads BibCode
2015P&SS..118..221C
Rights
open.access
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
LommelSeeliger_revised.pdf
Description
postprint
Size
151.18 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
ac447f4d44c223b2613706c8584f4a84
Loading...
Name
InversionPSS.pdf
Description
[administrators only]
Size
256 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9927269442d47642635a9f62715eb92a