Shape models of asteroids based on lightcurve observations with BlueEye600 robotic observatory

TL;DR

This paper presents new and refined convex shape models of 18 asteroids derived from lightcurve data, including the slowest rotator known, using robotic observatory observations and lightcurve inversion methods.

Contribution

It introduces 10 new asteroid shape models and refines 8 existing ones using extensive data and robotic observatory observations, enhancing asteroid physical property studies.

Findings

Model of asteroid (1663) van den Bos is the slowest rotator with known shape.

Developed a strategy for rapid asteroid model production from public photometry.

Built a database to facilitate asteroid physical property research.

Abstract

We present physical models, i.e. convex shapes, directions of the rotation axis, and sidereal rotation periods, of 18 asteroids out of which 10 are new models and 8 are refined models based on much larger data sets than in previous work. The models were reconstructed by the lightcurve inversion method from archived publicly available lightcurves and our new observations with BlueEye600 robotic observatory. One of the new results is the shape model of asteroid (1663)~van~den~Bos with the rotation period of 749\,hr, which makes it the slowest rotator with known shape. We describe our strategy for target selection that aims at fast production of new models using the enormous potential of already available photometry stored in public databases. We also briefly describe the control software and scheduler of the robotic observatory and we discuss the importance of building a database of asteroid models for studying asteroid physical properties in collisional families.