Asteroids’ physical models from combined dense and sparse photometry and scaling of the YORP effect by the observed obliquity distribution ^⋆

¹ Astronomical Institute, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, V Holešovičkách 2, 18000 Prague, Czech Republic
e-mail: hanus.home@gmail.com
² Astronomical Observatory Institute, Faculty of Physics, A. Mickiewicz University, Słoneczna 36, 60-286 Poznań, Poland
³ Palmer Divide Observatory, 17995 Bakers Farm Rd., Colorado Springs, CO 80908, USA
⁴ 4438 Organ Mesa Loop, Las Cruces, NM 88011, USA
⁵ Goat Mountain Astronomical Research Station, 11355 Mount Johnson Court, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91737, USA
⁶ Geneva Observatory, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
⁷ European Space Astronomy Centre, Spain, PO Box 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
⁸ Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences, Fričova 298, 25165 Ondřejov, Czech Republic
⁹ Observatoire de Bédoin, 47 rue Guillaume Puy, 84000 Avignon, France
¹⁰ Observatoire de Chinon, Mairie de Chinon, 37500 Chinon, France
¹¹ Courbes de rotation d’astéroïdes et de comètes, CdR  
¹² Association T60, 14 avenue Édouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
¹³ Harfleur, France
¹⁴ Observatoire des Engarouines, 84570 Mallemort-du-Comtat, France
¹⁵ Collonges Observatory, 90 allée des résidences, 74160 Collonges, France
¹⁶ Paris and Saint-Savinien, France
¹⁷ 139 Antibes France
¹⁸ Via M. Rosa, 1, 00012 Colleverde di Guidonia, Rome, Italy
¹⁹ 947 Saint-Sulpice, France
²⁰ IMCCE – Paris Observatory – UMR 8028 CNRS, 77 Av. Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France
²¹ A90 San Gervasi, Spain
²² l’Observatoire de Cabris, 408 chemin Saint Jean Pape, 06530 Cabris, France
²³ 929 Blackberry Observatory, USA
²⁴ Plateau du Moulin à Vent, St-Michel l’Observatoire, France
²⁵ J80 Saint-Hélène, France
²⁶ B13 Tradate, Italy
²⁷ 138 Village-Neuf, France
²⁸ TASS = The Amateur Sky Survey  
²⁹ Shed of Science Observatory, 5213 Washburn Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN 55410, USA
³⁰ Association AstroQueyras, 05350 Saint-Véran, France
³¹ Association des Utilisateurs de Détecteurs Électroniques (AUDE), France
³² Observatoire du Bois de Bardon, 16110 Taponnat, France
³³ Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
³⁴ Nordic Optical Telescope, Apartado 474, 38700 Santa Cruz de La Palma, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
³⁵ Hamanowa Astronomical Observatory, Hikarigaoka 4–34, Motomiya, Fukushima, Japan
³⁶ Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center, Rutherfordstrasse 2, 12489, Berlin, Germany
³⁷ Hunters Hill Observatory, 7 Mawalan Street, Ngunnawal ACT 2913, Australia
³⁸ 056 Skalnaté Pleso, Slovakia
³⁹ A83 Jakokoski, Finland
⁴⁰ Astrophysics Division, Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, Świętokrzyska 15, 25–406 Kielce, Poland
⁴¹ Université de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP, 31400 Toulouse, France
⁴² CNRS, IRAP, 14 avenue Édouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
⁴³ 980 Antelope Drive West, Bennett, CO 80102, USA
⁴⁴ LESIA-Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Univ. Paris-Diderot, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France
⁴⁵ Stazione Astronomica di Sozzago, 28060 Sozzago, Italy
⁴⁶ Forte Software, Os. Jagiełły 28/28 60-694 Poznań, Poland
⁴⁷ SUPA (Scottish Universities Physics Alliance), Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
⁴⁸ Club d’Astronomie Lyon Ampère, 37 rue Paul Cazeneuve, 69008 Lyon, France
⁴⁹ 174 Nyrölä, Finland
⁵⁰ Observatorio Montcabre, C/Jaume Balmes 24, 08348 Cabrils, Barcelona, Spain
⁵¹ Observatori Astronómico de Mallorca, Camí de l’Observatori, s/n 07144 Costitx, Mallorca, Spain
⁵² Kingsgrove, NSW, Australia
⁵³ Mt. Suhora Observatory, Pedagogical University, Podchorążych 2, 30-084, Cracow, Poland
⁵⁴ University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, PO Box 64, 00014 Helsinki
⁵⁵ Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
⁵⁶ 2 rue des Écoles, 34920 Le Crès, France
⁵⁷ F.-X. Bagnoud Observatory, 3961 St.-Luc, Switzerland
⁵⁸ Blauvac Observatory, 84570 St.-Estéve, France
⁵⁹ Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, BP 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
⁶⁰ Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, LESIA, 92190 Meudon, France
⁶¹ 143 Gnosca, Switzerland
⁶² DeKalb Observatory, 2507 CR 60, Auburn, IN 46706, USA
⁶³ 181 Les Makes, la Réunion, France
⁶⁴ CNRS-LKB-École Normale Supérieure – UMR 8552 – 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France
⁶⁵ ANS Collaboration, c/o Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Sede di Asiago, 36032 Asiago (VI), Italy
⁶⁶ Institute of Astronomy, Karazin Kharkiv National University, Sums’ka 35, 61022 Kharkiv, Ukraine
⁶⁷ Observatoire Francois-Xavier Bagnoud, 3961 St.-Luc, Switzerland

Received: 5 November 2012
Accepted: 15 January 2013

Abstract

Context. The larger number of models of asteroid shapes and their rotational states derived by the lightcurve inversion give us better insight into both the nature of individual objects and the whole asteroid population. With a larger statistical sample we can study the physical properties of asteroid populations, such as main-belt asteroids or individual asteroid families, in more detail. Shape models can also be used in combination with other types of observational data (IR, adaptive optics images, stellar occultations), e.g., to determine sizes and thermal properties.

Aims. We use all available photometric data of asteroids to derive their physical models by the lightcurve inversion method and compare the observed pole latitude distributions of all asteroids with known convex shape models with the simulated pole latitude distributions.

Methods. We used classical dense photometric lightcurves from several sources (Uppsala Asteroid Photometric Catalogue, Palomar Transient Factory survey, and from individual observers) and sparse-in-time photometry from the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Catalina Sky Survey, and La Palma surveys (IAU codes 689, 703, 950) in the lightcurve inversion method to determine asteroid convex models and their rotational states. We also extended a simple dynamical model for the spin evolution of asteroids used in our previous paper.

Results. We present 119 new asteroid models derived from combined dense and sparse-in-time photometry. We discuss the reliability of asteroid shape models derived only from Catalina Sky Survey data (IAU code 703) and present 20 such models. By using different values for a scaling parameter c_YORP (corresponds to the magnitude of the YORP momentum) in the dynamical model for the spin evolution and by comparing synthetic and observed pole-latitude distributions, we were able to constrain the typical values of the c_YORP parameter as between 0.05 and 0.6.