Related papers: The Active Asteroids
The orbital evolution of particles released from the surface of a rubble-pile body by Earth's tides during flyby within the Roche limit is studied. Test particles initially placed on the surface leave the surface and escape the parent body.…
Astrophysical fluid bodies that orbit close to one another induce tidal distortions and flows that are subject to dissipative processes. The spin and orbital motions undergo a coupled evolution over astronomical timescales, which is…
Comet nuclei in the outer Solar system are constantly irradiated by cosmic rays at low temperatures. Accumulated high concentrations of radicals can undergo fast recombination with significant heating of cometary surface layers. We present…
Discovery of the first interstellar asteroid (ISA) - 1I/2017 'Oumuamua - raised a number of questions regarding its origin. Many of them relate to its lack of cometary activity, suggesting refractory composition of 'Oumuamua. Here we…
Fractals -- objects with non-integer dimensions -- occur in manifold settings and length scales in nature, ranging from snowflakes and lightning strikes to natural coastlines. Much effort has been expended to generate fractals for use in…
The regolith-covered surfaces of asteroids preserve records of geophysical processes that have occurred both at their surfaces and sometimes also in their interiors. As a result of the unique micro-gravity environment that these bodies…
We propose that neutral, circumpulsar debris entering the light cylinder can account for many time-dependent pulsar phenomena that are otherwise difficult to explain. Neutral material avoids propeller ejection and injects sufficient charges…
The current philosophy of impact hazard considers the danger from small asteroids negligible. However, several facts claim for a revision of this philosophy. In this paper, some of these facts are reviewed and discussed. It is worth noting…
Near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon is an active asteroid with a dust tail repeatedly observed over the past decade for 3 days during each perihelion passage down to a heliocentric distance of 0.14 au. The mechanism causing the activity is…
Orbital resonances are believed to be responsible for the delivery of main belt asteroids to the inner Solar System. Several possibilities have been suggested to transport asteroids and their fragments into mean motion and secular…
C-complex asteroids, rich in carbonaceous materials, are potential sources of Earth's volatile inventories. They are spectrally dark resembling primitive carbonaceous meteorites, and thus, C-complex asteroids are thought to be potential…
The discovery of Jupiter-mass planets in close orbits about their parent stars has challenged models of planet formation. Recent observations have shown that a number of these planets have highly inclined, sometimes retrograde orbits about…
In the last decade, thanks to the development of sophisticated numerical codes, major breakthroughs have been achieved in our understanding of the formation of asteroid families by catastrophic disruption of large parent bodies. In this…
This paper presents a brief review and latest results of the work that has been carried out by the Planetary Science community in order to understand that role of the geotechnical properties of granular asteroids (commonly known as…
The question of whether asteroid ejecta can enter stable orbits about the parent body is examined.
All airless bodies are subject to the space environment, and spectral differences between asteroids and meteorites suggest many asteroids become weathered on very short (<1My) timescales. The spectra of some asteroids, particularly Q-types,…
More than a half of asteroids in the main belt have irregular shapes with the ratios of the minor to major axis lengths less than 0.6. One of the mechanisms to create such shapes is collisions between asteroids. The relationship between…
Even simple active systems can show a plethora of intriguing phenomena and often we find complexity were we would have expected simplicity. One striking example is the occurrence of a quiescent or absorbing state with frozen fluctuations…
Large compressions of the magnetopause are proposed to occasionally result from temporary encounters of the magnetosphere with dust streams in interplanetary space. Such streams may have their origin in cometary dust tails or asteroids…
Spirals in galaxies have long been thought to be caused by gravitational instability in the stellar component of the disk, but discerning the precise mechanism had proved elusive. Tidal interactions, and perhaps bars, may provoke some…