Absolute magnitudes and slope parameters for 250,000 asteroids observed by Pan-STARRS PS1 - preliminary results

TL;DR

This study uses a Monte Carlo approach to accurately determine the absolute magnitudes and slope parameters of approximately 240,000 asteroids observed by Pan-STARRS1, providing insights into asteroid properties and photometric biases.

Contribution

Introduces a Monte Carlo method for deriving asteroid H and G parameters with realistic uncertainties from Pan-STARRS1 data, validated against established results.

Findings

Confirmed bias in MPC asteroid photometry

Achieved accurate H and G estimates with limited observations

Validated method against known asteroid data

Abstract

We present the results of a Monte Carlo technique to calculate the absolute magnitudes (H) and slope parameters (G) of about 240000 asteroids observed by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope during the first 15 months of its 3-year all-sky survey mission. The system's exquisite photometry with photometric errors < 0.04 mag, and well-defined filter and photometric system, allowed us to derive accurate H and G even with a limited number of observations and restricted range in phase angles. Our Monte Carlo method simulates each asteroid's rotation period, amplitude and color to derive the most-likely H and G, but its major advantage is in estimating realistic statistical+systematic uncertainties and errors on each parameter. The method was tested by comparison with the well-established and accurate results for about 500 asteroids provided by Pravec et al. (2012) and then applied to determining H and G for the Pan-STARRS1 asteroids using both the Muinonen et al. (2010) and Bowell et al. (1989) phase functions. Our results confirm the bias in MPC photometry discovered by (Juric et al. 2002).