Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Magnusson, Per.
We have performed a spectroscopic survey of 19 D-type asteroids. Comparison with previous photometry shows excellent agreement. Although the majority have similar colors to cometary nuclei, no cometary emission bands were present in any of the spectra. Absorption bands sporadically appearing were apparently due to stellar objects, and no features inherent to the asteroids were observed.
The Asteroid Photometric Catalogue now contains photometric lightcurves for 584 asteroids. We discuss some of the guiding principles behind it. This concerns both observers who offer input to it and users of the product.
The principles of asteroid light-curve inversion are discussed together with basic principles involved in approaches for deriving asteroid pole and shape parameters from photometry data. The merits of various pole determination techniques are described and compared. Results obtained so far on the pole orientations and shapes of asteroids are presented.