2011/04/21 by Josef Durech, Josef Ďurech, M. Kaasalainen +14 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Planetary Science and Exploration #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.03.016
33 pages, 45 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Icarus
arxiv created 2011/04/21 · arxiv updated 2011/04/22 · openalex publication_date 2011/06/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Asteroid sizes can be directly measured by observing occultations of stars by asteroids. When there are enough observations across the path of the shadow, the asteroid's projected silhouette can be reconstructed. Asteroid shape models derived from photometry by the lightcurve inversion method enable us to predict the orientation of an asteroid for the time of occultation. By scaling the shape model to fit the occultation chords, we can determine the asteroid size with a relative accuracy of typically ~ 10%. We combine shape and spin state models of 44 asteroids (14 of them are new or updated models) with the available occultation data to derive asteroid effective diameters. In many cases, occultations allow us to reject one of two possible pole solutions that were derived from photometry. We show that by combining results obtained from lightcurve inversion with occultation timings, we can obtain unique physical models of asteroids.