Related papers: Cohesive Regolith on Fast Rotating Asteroids
A wide range of disordered materials, from biological to geological assemblies, feature discrete elements undergoing large shape changes. How significant geometrical variations at the microscopic scale affect the response of the assembly,…
Context. Rotational instability of rubble-pile asteroids can trigger mass shedding, forming transient debris clouds that may provide the initial conditions for secondary formation in binary systems. Aims. We investigate the dynamical and…
The Asteroid Belt and the Kuiper Belt are relics from the formation of our solar system. Understanding the size and spin distribution of the two belts is crucial for a deeper understanding of the formation of our solar system and the…
In order to study the origin of the architectures of low mass planetary systems, we perform numerical surveys of the evolution of pairs of coplanar planets in the mass range $(1-4)\ \rmn{M}_{\oplus}.$ These evolve for up to $2\times10^7…
Methods to constrain the surface mineralogy of asteroids have seen considerable development during the last decade with advancement in laboratory spectral calibrations and validation of our interpretive methodologies by spacecraft…
Meteorite craters on the asteroid surface obstruct the horizontal flow of solar wind, forming a plasma wake that modulates the particle fluxes and the electrostatic environment far downstream. In this study, surface charging properties of…
Surface charging phenomenon of asteroids, mainly resulting from solar wind plasma and solar radiation, has been studied extensively. However, the influence of asteroid's rotation on surface charging has yet to be fully understood. Here…
Few solar system asteroids and comets are found in high eccentricity orbits ($e > 0.9$) but in the primordial planetesimal disks and in exoplanet systems around dying stars such objects are believed to be common. For 2006 HY51, the main…
Main-belt asteroids have been continuously colliding with one another since they were formed. Its size distribution is primarily determined by the size dependence of asteroid strength against catastrophic impacts. The strength scaling law…
Space weathering is the generic term used for processes that modify the optical properties of surfaces of atmosphereless rocky bodies under exposure to the space environment. The general agreement about the relevance of the effects of space…
Asteroids and other small celestial bodies have markedly prolate shapes, and the perturbative triaxial torques which are applied during pericenter passages in highly eccentric orbits trigger and sustain a state of chaotic rotation. Because…
The effect of radial drift rate on mean motion resonance capture is studied for prograde, polar and retrograde orbits. We employ the numerical framework of our earlier exploration of resonance capture at arbitrary inclination. Randomly…
We examine the spectral properties of asteroid pairs that were disrupted in the last 2 Myrs to examine whether the site of the fission can be revealed. We studied the possibility that the sub-surface material, perhaps on one hemisphere, has…
The main asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, but the region is not uniformly filled with asteroids. There are gaps, known as the Kirkwood gaps, in the asteroid distribution in distinct locations that are associated…
We consider the long-term collisional and dynamical evolution of solid material orbiting in a narrow annulus near the Roche limit of a white dwarf. With orbital velocities of 300 km/sec, systems of solids with initial eccentricity $e…
Coagulation theory predicts that micron-sized dust grains grow into pebbles which drift inward towards the star, when they reach sizes of mm-cm. When they cross the orbit of a planet, a fraction of these drifting pebbles will be accreted.…
To deflect impact-trajectory of massive km^3 and spinning asteroid by a few terrestrial radius one need a large momentum exchange. The dragging of huge spinning bodies in space by external engine seems difficult or impossible. Our solution…
In many applications to biophysics and environmental engineering, sedimentation of non-spherical particles for example: ellipsoids, is an important problem. In our work, we simulate the dynamics of oblate ellipsoids under gravity. We study…
Understanding the fate of planetary systems through white dwarfs which accrete debris crucially relies on tracing the orbital and physical properties of exo-asteroids during the giant branch phase of stellar evolution. Giant branch…
All of the known circumbinary planets are large (> 3 Earth radii). Whilst observational biases may account for this dearth of small planets, in this paper we propose a theoretical explanation. Most of the known planets are near the…