Related papers: Gyr-timescale destruction of high-eccentricity ast…
To date, rings are found around a Centaur (10199) Chariklo, trans-neptunian objects (TNOs) (136108) Haumea, and (50000) Quaoar. These discoveries suggest that asteroidal ring systems may be common, particularly in the outer solar system.…
Surface shedding of an asteroid is a failure mode where surface materials fly off due to strong centrifugal forces beyond the critical spin period, while the internal structure does not deform significantly. This paper proposes a possible…
In this article, theory-based analytical methodologies of astrophysics employed in the modern era are suitably operated alongside a test research-grade telescope to image and determine the orbit of a near-earth asteroid from original…
Physical studies of asteroids depend on an availability of lightcurve data. Targets that are easy to observe and analyse naturally have more data available, so their synodic periods are confirmed from multiple sources. Also, thanks to…
The first direct detection of the asteroidal YORP effect, a phenomenon that changes the spin states of small bodies due to thermal reemission of sunlight from their surfaces, was obtained for (54509) YORP 2000 PH5. Such an alteration can…
This paper presents transition of the failure mode of a cohesive, spherical body due to YORP spin-up. On the assumption that the distribution of materials in the body is homogeneous, failed regions first appearing in the body at different…
The asteroid belt is characterized by an extreme low total mass of material on dynamically excited orbits. The Nice Model explains many peculiar qualities of the solar system, including the belt's excited state, by invoking an orbital…
We use numerical simulations to test the feasibility of the suggestion by Ibata et al. (1994) that the excess population of stars which they discovered in the Sagittarius region may be the disrupted remains of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy. We…
We propose that Kozai's phenomenon is responsible for the long-term evolution of stellar orbits near a supermassive black hole. We pursue the idea that this process may be driven by a fossil accretion disc in the centre of our Galaxy,…
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…
The under-abundance of asteroids on orbits with small perihelion distances suggests that thermally-driven disruption may be an important process in the removal of rocky bodies in the Solar System. Here we report our study of how the debris…
Jewitt et al. (2014) recently reported that main belt comet P/2013 R3 experienced a breakup, probably due to rotational disruption, with its components separating on mutually hyperbolic orbits. We propose a technique for constraining…
Using our photometric observations taken between 1996 and 2013 and other published data, we derived properties of the binary near-Earth asteroid (175706) 1996 FG3 including new measurements constraining evolution of the mutual orbit with…
(144977) 2005 EC127 is an V-/A-type inner-main-belt asteroid with a diameter of 0.6 +- 0.1 km. Asteroids of this size are believed to have rubble-pile structure, and, therefore, cannot have a rotation period shorter than 2.2 hours. However,…
Asteroid Ryugu and asteroid Bennu, which were recently visited by spacecraft Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx, respectively, are spinning top-shaped rubble piles. Other axisymmetric top-shaped near-Earth asteroids have been observed with…
While the number of asteroids with known shapes has drastically increased over the past few years, little is known on the the time-evolution of shapes and the underlying physical processes. Here we propose an averaged abrasion model based…
Between 2010 and 2017 we have collected new optical and radar observations of the potentially hazardous asteroid (2102)~Tantalus from the ESO NTT and Danish telescopes at the La Silla Observatory and from the Arecibo planetary radar. The…
Context. The high-angular-resolution capability of the new-generation ground-based adaptive-optics camera SPHERE at ESO VLT allows us to assess, for the very first time, the cratering record of medium-sized (D~100-200 km) asteroids from the…
The tidal force from a supermassive black hole can rip apart a star that passes close enough in what is known as a Tidal Disruption Event. Typically half of the destroyed star remains bound to the black hole and falls back on highly…
Asteroid families form as a result of large-scale collisions among main belt asteroids. The orbital distribution of fragments after a family-forming impact could inform us about their ejection velocities. Unfortunately, however, orbits…