Shevchenko V. Integral photometry of asteroids: observations and numerical simulation

The work is devoted to the study of the brightness behavior of asteroids of the main compositional types and dynamical groups, to the development of practical recommendations to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) on the calculation of asteroid absolute magnitudes, and the creation of an independent albedo scale of asteroids from photometric data. For the first time the high-precision phase dependence of brightness have been obtained for 46 asteroids of the main compositional types and dynamical groups based on detailed photometric observations carried out over 608 nights. The low albedo asteroids have been found, which do not have an opposition brightening showing linear magnitude phase dependence down to extremely small phase angle. For the first time the average values of G1 and G2 parameters of the new HG1G2-function for the main asteroid compositional types have been obtained. These data will be used by the MPC for estimation of the absolute magnitudes for newly discovered asteroids, as well as for calculation of apparent magnitudes in asteroid ephemeris. For the first time an independent set of high-precision albedo values was obtained, containing data for about 100 asteroids of different compositional types, by using the occultation diameters. In approach of an ellipsoid model, Akimov light scattering law and arbitrary phase function the inverse problem of determining the model parameters from the asteroid lightcurves was solved. The pole coordinates and the halfaxial ratios for 80 asteroids were obtained, for the most part of them it was first determinations of these parameters. Photometric observations were carried out and main rotational and photometric characteristics were obtained for the five asteroids (4 Vesta, 21 Lutetia, 433 Eros, 2867 Steins, 4179 Toutatis) which were the targets of the Dawn, Rosetta, NEAR and Change-2 space missions. These results were used for the construction of pre-flight engineering asteroid models, as well as for the processing and analysis of space mission data.