Lightcurves

Lightcurve Photometry

The minor planets targeted during routine follow-up of newly discovered Near-Earth Objects at Great Shefford are mostly faint, many being too faint to be visible on single images and are only revealed by adding (stacking) many images together - see here. However, a few are bright enough that individual exposures can provide accurate brightness measurements and therefore, if a series of exposures are taken, the brightness variations over a period of time can be measured and used to determine how fast the minor planet is rotating and the amplitude of the variations. Many Near-Earth objects are very small, some only tens of metres in diameter or smaller and often are rotating very fast.

Listed below are light curves produced from measurements of images taken at Great Shefford and many published in the Minor Planet Bulletin, the Bulletin of the Minor Planets Section of The Association Of Lunar And Planetary Observers (ALPO). A Minor Planet Center table relating absolute magnitude (H) to size is available (see link in 'H' heading below).

Name	Lightcurve	Observed	Rot. Period	Ampl.	H	Publication
143651 (2003 QO104)		2009 Apr 22 - 2009 May 22	113.3 h	1.4	16.0	MPB Vol 36, No 4, p. 186-187
2000 RE52 = 2010 EK2		2010 Mar	4.9 h	0.9	22.3	MPB Vol 45, No 2, p. 178-181
2008 YZ32		2010 Jan	5.8 min	0.4	20.1	MPB Vol 45, No 2, p. 178-181
2009 EW		2009 Mar	3.8 min	1.5	26.4	MPB Vol 38, No 1, p. 36-39
2009 FH		2009 Mar 17	6.4 min	0.3	26.6	MPB Vol 36, No 4, p. 186-187
2009 HM82		2009 May 2-4	7.6 min	0.9	22.6	MPB Vol 36, No 4, p. 186-187
2009 KW2		2009 May 24-25	3.4 min	0.7	26.6	MPB Vol 36, No 4, p. 186-187
2009 KL8		2009 May 31	2.7 min	0.8	24.3	MPB Vol 36, No 4, p. 186-187
2009 QH34		2009 Aug	2.1 min	0.5	24.9	MPB Vol 38, No 1, p. 36-39
2009 UD		2009 Oct	1.4 min	0.7	27.2	MPB Vol 38, No 1, p. 36-39
2009 WV51		2009 Nov	4.6 min	0.9	27.1	MPB Vol 38, No 1, p. 36-39
2010 EX11		2010 Mar	2.7 min	0.3	24.1	MPB Vol 38, No 1, p. 36-39
2010 GF7		2010 Apr	1.9 min	0.8	25.9	MPB Vol 38, No 1, p. 36-39
2010 TG19		2010 Oct	1.2 min	1.1	23.9	MPB Vol 38, No 2, p. 104-107
2010 UJ7		2010 Nov	3.2 min	0.9	25.4	MPB Vol 38, No 2, p. 104-107
2010 VK139		2010 Nov	1.8 min	0.5	23.7	MPB Vol 38, No 2, p. 104-107
2010 XE11		2010 Dec	1.6 min	0.5	23.0	MPB Vol 38, No 2, p. 104-107
2010 XM56		2010 Dec	2.35 h	4.4	25.1	MPB Vol 38, No 2, p. 104-107
2012 XE54		2012 Dec	1.7 min	0.3	25.4	MPB Vol 45, No 3, p. 215-219
2016 VA		2016 Nov	-	-	27.6	MPB Vol 45, No 3, p. 215-219
2017 UK8		2017 Oct	31 sec	1.3	28.2	MPB Vol 45, No 2, p. 178-181
2017 VD		2017 Nov	8.0 h	0.9	20.8	MPB Vol 45, No 2, p. 178-181
2018 CB		2018 Feb	5.4 min	0.2+	25.9	MPB Vol 48, No 1, p. 26-29 (link to full MPB issue)
2018 GE3		2018 Apr	18.2 min	0.9	23.8	MPB Vol 48, No 1, p. 26-29 (link to full MPB issue)
2018 KF1		2018 May	1.9 min	1.3	25.8	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 GF2		2020 Apr	1.1 min	0.8	26.0	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 KK7		2020 May - Jun	46 sec	1.4	26.3	MPB Vol 48, No 1, p. 26-29 (link to full MPB issue)
2020 OH3		2020 Jul	23.5 min	1.0	24.6	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 RA6		2020 Sep	20.5 min	2.1	26.0	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 RZ6		2020 Sep	32 sec	1.2	26.5	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 TP1		2020 Oct	25 min	0.8	26.8	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 SW		2020 Sep	28 sec	0.7	29.1	MPB Vol 48, No 1, p. 26-29 (link to full MPB issue)
2020 TD8		2020 Oct	30 sec	0.9	26.9	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 UQ6		2020 Oct	2.7 min	0.7	22.6	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 VZ6		2020 Dec	5.9 min	0.8	25.1	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 XX3		2020 Dec	2.3 min	1.0	28.5	(submitted for publication in the MPB)
2020 SO = 1966-084B? 1966 Surveyor 2 Centaur rocket body?		2020 Dec	9.4 sec	3.1		Minor Planet Mailing List #36025
2010-050B Chang'e 2 rocket body		2010 Nov	26.9 sec	3.3		Minor Planet Mailing List #33260
2020-052B Mars 2020 Atlas 5 Centaur rocket body		2020 Jul	28.6 sec	2.2		Minor Planet Mailing List #35725