Asteroid Observations from the Minor Planet Center Database: Opportunities and Challenges for Light Curve Analysis

This work investigates whether photometric data of asteroids archived by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) can be reliably used to determine rotation periods. A sample of 33 main-belt asteroids with Earth minimum orbit intersection distances (MOIDs) smaller than 1 AU was analyzed. Unique rotation periods were successfully determined for all targets, including 29 asteroids with previously unknown periods. The dataset combines observations from 18 different observatories, with distance, time, and phase-angle corrections applied. A custom Lomb–Scargle analysis pipeline was developed to identify a unique rotation period for each asteroid. Although the method is computationally demanding, it is well-suited for automation and for use with routine photometric observations, such as survey data, rather than dedicated observing campaigns. This approach enables efficient expansion of asteroid rotational databases, particularly for dynamically important objects with small Earth MOIDs.