Averaged total phase light curve for NEAs
Abstract
Asteroid phase curve is a dependence of an asteroid apparent magnitude on a phase angle. It is a difficult task to construct the phase curve for some asteroid, because it requires accurate photometric observations over a long period of time. On the other hand, by now a huge amount of photometric data have been accumulated, such as the apparent magnitude, determined when observing the asteroid. These data can be used to obtain some averaged phase curve. Near-Earth asteroids (NEA) are best suited for this, as they are observed over a wide range of phase angles. In this work, more than 800 numbered NEAs were studied. All observations with a detected apparent magnitude were selected. Using numerical integration, distances from the asteroid to the Earth and to the Sun and the phase angle were calculated for each observation. Using these values, a contribution of the phase effect to the observed magnitude was determined. Then the obtained data were averaged over the phase angle, and a plot was built. The plot of the averaged phase curve deviates somewhat from a similar plot, built according to the Bowell formula, which is currently recommended for use in photometry.
- Publication:
-
INASAN Science Reports
- Pub Date:
- July 2022
- DOI:
- 10.51194/INASAN.2022.7.1.001
- Bibcode:
- 2022INASR...7....2V
- Keywords:
-
- asteroids;
- photometry;
- phase curve