Shape Determination of the Asteroid (6053) 1993 BW3

Abstract The optical lightcurves of the Amor asteroid (6053) 1993 BW 3 reported by Pravec et al. (1997, Icarus 127 , 441–451), together with the triaxial ellipsoid model ( a / b =1.08, b / c ≈1.5), pole direction (175°, –9°), and sidereal rotation period 0.107 225 8 day, are used for lightcurve inversion. A trial-and-error method is used for determining the shape that gives the best fit between observed and synthetic lightcurves. The original pole direction derived by Pravec et al. (1997, Icarus 127 , 441–451) is moderately changed to the value (180°, 6°). The synthetic lightcurves generated by the model provide a good fit to the observed lightcurves with a rms residual of 0.033 mag. Hapke's parameters cannot be determined unambiguously. The adopted model with parameters w =0.30, g =−0.26, h =0.02, B 0 =1.32, and θ =30° gives a mean shift between observed and computed lightcurves of 0.053 mag.