Determination of asteroid shapes from lightcurves

• Grant number: 13/25299-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2014
• End date: March 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Solar System Astronomy
• Principal Investigator: Rafael Sfair de Oliveira
• Grantee: Victor Correa Lattari
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEG). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Guaratinguetá. Guaratinguetá , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Asteroids are leftovers from which the planets of our Solar System formed, and they keep valuable information of this formation process. An excellent tool to study these objects are their light curves, which are obtained by monitoring the variation of the object brightness as a function of time. Applying an inversion method upon the light curves it is possible to calculate the spin rate of the asteroid and to derive a polyhedral representation for shape of the body. The aim of this project is to apply a numerical implementation the inversion technique in order to create a database of asteroid shapes.