Spin Parameters and Shape Models of Near-Earth Asteroids (4660) Nereus, (21088) Chelyabinsk, (66146) 1998 TU3, and (297418) 2000 SP43

Rodríguez Rodríguez, Javier; Díez Alonso, Enrique; Álvarez, Santiago Iglesias; Pérez Fernández, Saúl; Roca, Alejandro Buendia; Fernández Díaz, Julia; Licandro, Javier; Alarcon, Miguel R.; Serra-Ricart, Miquel; Macías, Amadeo Aznar; de Cos Juez, Francisco Javier
Bibliographical reference

The Planetary Science Journal

Advertised on:
1
2026
Number of authors
11
IAC number of authors
3
Refereed citations
0
Description
We present our shape and rotational characterization of four near-Earth asteroids observed as part of the Visible NEAs Observations Survey. This work includes 61 new light curves obtained between 2020 June and 2024 September for asteroids (21088) Chelyabinsk and (66146) 1998 TU3 and the potentially hazardous asteroids (4660) Nereus and (297418) 2000 SP43. We combine these observations with archival data to derive their shape models, spin parameters, and refined rotation periods using a light-curve inversion method. Our derived rotational periods are consistent with previously published values for all the objects. We present constant-period models for each asteroid, while for (66146) 1998 TU3 we detect a possible Yarkovsky─O'Keefe─Radzievskii─Paddack (YORP) acceleration of υ ≃ 2.05 × 10−8 rad day−2, potentially adding it to the short list of asteroids known to experience the YORP effect.