DAMIT: a database of asteroid models

Abstract

Context. Apart from a few targets that were directly imaged by spacecraft, remote sensing techniques are the main source of information about the basic physical properties of asteroids, such as the size, the spin state, or the spectral type. The most widely used observing technique -time-resolved photometry -provides us with data that can be used for deriving asteroid shapes and spin states. In the past decade, inversion of asteroid lightcurves has led to more than a hundred asteroid models. In the next decade, when data from all-sky surveys are available, the number of asteroid models will increase. Combining photometry with, e.g., adaptive optics data produces more detailed models. Aims. We created the Database of Asteroid Models from Inversion Techniques (DAMIT) with the aim of providing the astronomical community access to reliable and up-to-date physical models of asteroids -i.e., their shapes, rotation periods, and spin axis directions. Models from DAMIT can be used for further detailed studies of individual objects, as well as for statistical studies of the whole set. Methods. Most DAMIT models were derived from photometric data by the lightcurve inversion method. Some of them have been further refined or scaled using adaptive optics images, infrared observations, or occultation data. A substantial number of the models were derived also using sparse photometric data from astrometric databases.Results. At present, the database contains models of more than one hundred asteroids. For each asteroid, DAMIT provides the polyhedral shape model, the sidereal rotation period, the spin axis direction, and the photometric data used for the inversion. The database is updated when new models are available or when already published models are updated or refined. We have also released the C source code for the lightcurve inversion and for the direct problem (updates and extensions will follow).

Genetic inversion of sparse disk-integrated photometric data of asteroids: application to Hipparcos data

“…Here, we refer in particular to the asteroid pole database initially assembled by Magnusson et al (1989), and now maintained and regularly updated by the team of the Poznan Observatory, as described by Kryszczynska et al (2007) 2 In some cases, some very detailed shape and spin models are given by Durech & Sidorin (2009). As for the spin periods, we refer to the data available at the NASA PDS web site (Harris et al 2006).…”

Do Slivan states exist in the Flora family?

“…However, parameters like the position of rotation axis, the shape model, and the sense of rotation require many observations in various observing circumstances. Such parameters are available for about 250 objects, but only 170 have reasonably reliable determinations, all listed in the present databases (Kryszczynska et al 2007;Durech et al 2010). In general, the ecliptic latitude and the longitude are the two angles describing the spin vector orientation.…”

Space-Based Thermal Infrared Studies of Asteroids

“…Asteroid lightcurves, sometimes combined with stellar occultation data, have been inverted to obtain models of shapes and rotational states for hundreds of objects (Kaasalainen et al 2001;Durech et al 2010, see also Durech et al in this volume). Radar observations can produce the most detailed information about shape, size, orbit, and spin state short of visiting a body with spacecraft (e.g.…”