MonitorMyPlanet.com

Working on Planetary Defense Against Near-Earth Asteroids and Multi-planet Exoplanet Systems

Peer-Reviewed Publications


Sole Authored

Find all my papers on NASA ADS and ORCID.

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Minor Planet Bulletin 53(4), 2026

Nath, A. (2026).
Lightcurve and Rotation Period of Binary Asteroid (1727) Mette
Minor Planet Bulletin, 53(4), 269–270.

Eleven nights of R-band photometry (March–April 2026) of the binary Hungaria asteroid (1727) Mette give a synodic rotation period of 2.9810 ± 0.0004 h and an amplitude of 0.26 mag (minimum axis ratio a/b ≥ 1.27). After removing the primary lightcurve, no mutual events from the known satellite were seen above the noise, consistent with a more pole-on viewing geometry at this apparition.


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Minor Planet Bulletin 53(4), 2026

Nath, A. (2026).
Lightcurve and Rotation Period of (3409) Abramov
Minor Planet Bulletin, 53(4), 277–278.

Four nights of R-band photometry (September 2025) of the Koronis-family asteroid (3409) Abramov give a synodic rotation period of 8.505 ± 0.001 h and an amplitude of 0.49 mag, implying a moderately elongated shape (a/b ≥ 1.57). The period differs from the 7.791 h previously reported; phasing the 2025 data to that value does not produce a coherent lightcurve.


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Cover of the August 2026 issue (Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 120(4)).

Nath, A. (2026).
Building My Remote Observatory at 15: Engineering for Millimagnitude Photometric Precision
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 120(4), August 2026.

A practical account of designing, funding, configuring, and calibrating a remote research observatory (IAU Minor Planet Center code R60) at a dark-sky site in Nerpio, Spain, engineered to reach millimagnitude photometric precision for asteroid and exoplanet time-series work. It covers instrument selection, guiding and flat-fielding strategy, and the calibration pipeline that makes the data science-grade.


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Minor Planet Bulletin (2026) · 2025 FA22 rotation period & shape

Nath, A. (2026).
Shape and Spin of Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2025 FA22
Minor Planet Bulletin, 53(2), 129.

Six nights of photometry of the newly discovered potentially hazardous asteroid 2025 FA22 yield a synodic rotation period of 13.075 hours. The lightcurve amplitude indicates an elongated shape, characterising the object's spin and figure during its close approach to Earth. This was among the first published rotation periods for 2025 FA22 and has since been cited by other studies of the object.

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Phased lightcurve and period spectrum of 2025 FA22 (P = 13.075 h). Minor Planet Bulletin 53-2.

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Journal of Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (2026) · 2025 FA22 photometric characterization

Nath, A. (2026).
Photometric Characterization of Newly Discovered Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2025 FA22
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 120(2), 50–53.

Multi-band CCD photometry of potentially hazardous asteroid 2025 FA22 during its September 2025 close approach gives a synodic rotation period near 13.1 hours and BVRI colour indices consistent with an S-type (stony) composition, characterizing a hazardous near-Earth object within days of its discovery.

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BVRI reflectance spectrum of 2025 FA22, placing it in the S-type taxonomy. JRASC 120(2).

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Minor Planet Bulletin (2026) · (2977) Chivilikhin rotation period

Nath, A. (2026).
Lightcurve and rotation period of asteroid (2977) Chivilikhin
Minor Planet Bulletin, 53(1), 14–15.

Dense time-series photometry of main-belt asteroid (2977) Chivilikhin from remote robotic telescopes resolves a synodic rotation period of 6.257 ± 0.001 hours. The double-peaked phased lightcurve constrains the asteroid's rotation and shape.

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Phased lightcurve and period spectrum of asteroid (2977) Chivilikhin (P = 6.257 h). Minor Planet Bulletin 53-1.

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Acta Astronautica (2024) · algorithms to detect NASA DART Mission deflection success

Nath, A. (2024).
Developing algorithms to determine an asteroid's physical properties and the success of deflection missions
Acta Astronautica, 220, 62–74.

Open-source Python algorithms derive asteroid rotation periods, diameters, and binary mutual-orbit periods from a combination of sparse and dense photometry. Applied to the Didymos system, the method recovers the DART-induced shortening of Dimorphos's mutual orbital period from 11.91 to 11.35 hours, independently confirming the spacecraft's deflection of the asteroid.

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Mutual orbital period of Didymos-Dimorphos before (11.91 h) and after (11.35 h) the DART impact. Acta Astronautica 220.

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Journal of Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (2023) · finding unknown near-Earth asteroids

Nath, A. (2023).
Finding unknown asteroids to strengthen planetary defence
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 117(1), 28–30.

A reproducible Python pipeline detects previously uncatalogued moving objects in open survey images by aligning image sequences and isolating sources that shift against the fixed background stars. A masking step suppresses contaminating light to reveal faint asteroid candidates, yielding position-versus-time astrometry suitable for follow-up and reporting.

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Image pixel-brightness without and with my masking technique for detecting unknown asteroids. JRASC 117(1).

Contributing Co-Author - Data Provider to Large Collaborations

Kokori, A., et al. (2026).
ExoClock Project IV: A homogeneous catalogue of 620 updated exoplanet ephemerides
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 283, 5.
Data contributor to a 620-exoplanet community catalogue: submitted updated transit ephemerides for multiple targets through the ExoClock/Ariel collaboration.

Moskovitz, N., et al. (2024).
Photometry of the Didymos System across the DART Impact Apparition
The Planetary Science Journal, 5(2), Article 35.
Data contributor: 55+ hours of calibrated photometry using robotic telescopes across Australia, Canada, Chile, and Spain, as part of an international team of nearly 80 co-authors.


Conference Proceedings & Presentations

SciPy Conference, 2024. Algorithms to Determine Asteroid Physical Properties Using Sparse and Dense Photometry, Robotic Telescopes, and Open Data

8th IAA Planetary Defense Conference, Vienna, 2023. Developing Algorithms to Determine the Physical Properties of Asteroids and Applying Them to Measure the DART Impact on Didymos

AAVSO Annual Meeting, 2022. Detecting Unknown Asteroids Using Robotic Telescopes, Open Data, and Python

Conference talks, posters, and abstracts (NESF, LPSC, AGU, ExoClock and others) are listed on the Talks and Posters page.

Science Communication & Outreach

SkyNews Magazine (2020)
Around the universe in six years
Nov-Dec 2020.