Related papers: Cohesive Regolith on Fast Rotating Asteroids
The surfaces of many planetary bodies, including asteroids and small moons, are covered with dust to pebble-sized regolith held weakly to the surface by gravity and contact forces. Understanding the reaction of regolith to an external…
We compare low velocity impacts that ricochet with the same impact velocity and impact angle into granular media with similar bulk density, porosity and friction coefficient but different mean grain size. The ratio of projectile diameter to…
Although discs of dust and gas have been observed orbiting white dwarfs, the origin of this circumstellar matter is uncertain. We hypothesize that the in-situ breakup of small bodies such as asteroids spun to fission during the giant branch…
The rotational distribution of asteroids as a function of their size is used {as a diagnostic of} their physical properties and evolution. Recent photometric surveys from the Gaia mission, allowing observation of asteroids with long spin…
Rozitis et al. recently reported that near-Earth asteroid (29075) 1950 DA, whose bulk density ranges from 1.0 g/cm3 to 2.4 g/cm3, is a rubble pile and requires a cohesive strength of at least 44 Pa to 74 Pa to keep from failing due to its…
Any population of asteroids, like asteroid families, will disperse in semi-major axis due to the Yarkovsky effect. The amount of drift is modulated by the asteroid spin state evolution which determines the balance between the diurnal and…
Close to the Roche radius of a white dwarf (WD), an asteroid on a circular orbit sheds material that then adopts a very similar orbit. Observations of the resulting debris show a periodic behavior and changes in flux on short timescales,…
Liquid may give strong cohesion properties to a granular medium, and confer a solid-like behavior. We study the erosion of a fixed circular aggregate of wet granular matter subjected to a flow of dry grains inside a half-filled rotating…
Context. Tangential YORP is a thermophysical effect that can alter the rotation rate of asteroids and is distinct from the "normal" YORP effect, but to date has only been studied for asteroids with zero obliquity. Aims. The tangential YORP…
In granular systems, thermal cycling causes compaction, creep, penetration of dense objects, and ratcheting of grains against each other. On asteroid surfaces, thermal cycling is high amplitude and can happen billions of times in a few…
The rotation states of kilometer sized near earth asteroids are known to be affected by the YORP effect. In a related effect, Binary YORP (BYORP) the orbital properties of a binary asteroid evolves under a radiation effect mostly acting on…
We experimentally study the velocity scaling of granular convection which is a possible mechanism of the regolith migration on the surface of small asteroids. In order to evaluate the contribution of granular convection to the regolith…
We present recent improvements in the simulation of regolith sampling processes in microgravity using the numerical particle method smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH). We use an elastic-plastic soil constitutive model for large deformation…
Shear strength and cohesion of granular materials are important geotechnical properties that play a crucial role in the stability and behavior of lunar and Martian regolith, as well as their terrestrial analog materials. To characterize and…
Over one quarter of white dwarfs contain observable metallic debris from the breakup of exo-asteroids. Understanding the physical and orbital history of this debris would enable us to self-consistently link planetary system formation and…
Observed planetary debris in white dwarf atmospheres predominately originate from the destruction of small bodies on highly eccentric ($>0.99$) orbits. Despite their importance, these minor planets have coupled physical and orbital…
Top-shaped asteroids have been observed among near-Earth asteroids. About half of them are reported to have moons (on the order of $\sim 1$wt.\% of the top-shaped primary) and many of them have an equatorial ridge. A recent study has shown…
We study the motion and equilibria of the grains on the surface of the irregular celestial body (hereafter called irregular bodies). Motions for the grains on the smooth and unsmooth surfaces are discussed, respectively. The linearized…
The tangential YORP effect (TYORP) plays a significant role in the dynamical evolution of asteroids, and up to now has only been studied numerically. This paper describes the first analytic model of the TYORP effect. Although the model…
Granular material that is bound by the low gravity of a small asteroid is mobilized by slow velocity impacts. These splashes generated by impacts might play an important role in sculpting the asteroid's surface. In laboratory experiments we…