NEA (2102) Tantalus light curves

The object appears to be nearly spherical, showing a low amplitude light-curve variation and limited large-scale features in the radar images. The spin-state is difficult to constrain with the available data; including a certain light-curve subset significantly changes the spin-state estimates, and the uncertainties on period determination are significant.

Constraining any change in rotation rate was not possible, despite decades of observations. The convex lightcurve-inversion model, with rotational pole at lon=210+/-41{deg} and lat=-30+/-35{deg}, is more flattened than the two models reconstructed by including radar observations: with prograde (lon=36+/-23{deg}, lat=30+/-15{deg}), and with retrograde rotation mode (lon=180+/-24{deg}, lat=-30+/-16d{deg}. Using data from WISE we were able to determine that the prograde model produces the best agreement in size determination between radar and thermophysical modelling.