Light Curve Tool for Small Bodies

Known Body Mode

This tool simulates rotational light curves of minor bodies in the Solar System as observed from Earth. It also allows the object to be displayed projected onto the sky plane, where north is up and east is to the left. Users can upload a custom shape model in .obj format or define the principal axes of a triaxial ellipsoid. For more details, please refer to the manual. In this video you have a usage example.

Estimated runtimes depend on the light curve resolution and the number of facets in the shape model. Click here to view benchmark times for typical configurations

Inputs

Object

Date

Rotation pole longitude
Ecliptic coordinates (0°–360°)

Rotation pole latitude
Ecliptic coordinates (-90°,+90°)

LC number of points

Rotational phase offset

Upload shape model (.obj)

Ellipsoid principal axes

a b c

Photometric Model

Empirical models

Phase function

Disk Function

Hapke model

w (Single scattering albedo)

b_HG (Henyey-Greenstein parameter)

c_HG (Henyey-Greenstein parameter)

B_C0 (Amplitude of CBOE)

h_C (Angular width of CBOE)

B_S0 (Amplitude of SHOE)

h_S (Angular width of SHOE)

θ_p (Photometric roughness, degrees)

φ (Filling factor)

Albedo feature

Precession

Generate images

Self-shadowing (be aware that this could take up to several minutes)

Upload your light curve for comparison