Online multi-parameter phase-curve fitting and application to a large corpus of asteroid photometric data

摘要

We apply the new H,G_(12) and H,G_1,G_2 phase functions to a large corpus of asteroid photometric data. We make use of low-precision (generally rounded to 0.1mag) and low-accuracy (rms magnitude uncertainties of ±0.2-0.3mag) data obtained from the Minor Planet Center and modified at Lowell Observatory. We find (1) a correlation between G_1,G_2 values derived for asteroid families and albedos; (2) G_(12) homogeneity in families. In addition, we make available an online Java applet (titled Asteroid Phase Function Analyzer). The applet may be used to compute asteroid absolute magnitudes and slope parameters using three different phase functions: the H,G, H,G_1,G_2, and H,G_(12). The tool also includes non-Gaussian error analysis using Monte Carlo methods. The applet is available at http://asteroid.astro.helsinki.fi/astphase/.