Related papers: Constraining the Interiors of Asteroids Through Cl…
Near Earth Objects (NEOs) are a transient population of small bodies with orbits near or in the terrestrial planet region. They represent a mid-stage in the dynamical cycle of asteroids and comets, which starts with their removal from the…
All near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) that reach sufficiently small perihelion distances will undergo a so-called super-catastrophic disruption. The mechanisms causing such disruptions are currently unknown or, at least, undetermined. To help…
A comprehensive characterization of the detection efficiency of nine of the major asteroid surveys that have been active over the past two decades is presented. The detection efficiency is estimated on a nightly basis by comparing the…
Recent works have found evidence of significant intrasystem uniformity in planet properties such as radius, mass, and orbital spacing, collectively termed 'peas in a pod' trends. In particular, correlations in radius and mass have been…
The Earth--Moon system has been experiencing impacts from asteroids and comets for billions of years. The Moon, as an airless body, has preserved a distinct record of these events in form of impact craters and ejecta deposits, offering…
Recent lunar crater studies have revealed an asymmetric distribution of rayed craters on the lunar surface. The asymmetry is related to the synchronous rotation of the Moon: there is a higher density of rayed craters on the leading…
Using a fully autonomous spacecraft - Bering - we propose to detect and study sub-km asteroids from an orbit within the asteroid Main Belt. The main purpose of the proposed Bering mission is to detect a statistically significant sample of…
The observationally complete sample of the main belt asteroids now spans more than two orders of magnitude in size and numbers more than 64,000 (excluding collisional family members). We undertook an analysis of asteroids' eccentricities…
In this work we describe a genetic algorithm which is used in order to study orbits of minor bodies in the frames of close encounters. We find that the algorithm in combination with standard orbital numerical integrators can be used as a…
The density profiles of dark matter haloes can potentially probe dynamics, fundamental physics, and cosmology, but some of the most promising signals reside near or beyond the virial radius. While these scales have recently become…
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…
In this work we aim to constrain the slope of the size distribution of main-belt asteroids, at their primordial state. To do so we turn out attention to the part of the main asteroid belt between 2.82 and 2.96~AU, the so-called "pristine…
As astronomical photometric surveys continue to tile the sky repeatedly, the potential to pushdetection thresholds to fainter limits increases; however, traditional digital-tracking methods cannotachieve this efficiently beyond time scales…
Shock-physics numerical codes are essential tools for describing the short but extreme fragmentation stage of the hypervelocity impact process on asteroids. However, accurately representing complex interior structures, surfaces, and contact…
We report 491 new near-infrared spectroscopic measurements of 420 near-Earth objects (NEOs) collected on the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF) as part of the MIT-Hawaii NEO Spectroscopic Survey (MITHNEOS). These measurements were…
Optical lightcurves can be used for the shape and spin reconstruction of asteroids. Due to unknown albedo, these models are scale-free. When thermal infrared data are available, they can be used for scaling the shape models and for deriving…
Understanding the properties of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) is key for many aspects of planetary science, particularly planetary defense. Our current knowledge of NEA sizes and regolith properties is heavily dependent on simple thermal…
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…
<<>> Among the components of the infrared and submillimetre sky background, the closest layer is the thermal emission of dust particles and minor bodies in the Solar System. This contribution is especially important for current and future…
Context. Mars-crossing asteroids (MCs) are a dynamically unstable group between the main belt and the near-Earth populations. Characterising the physical properties of a large sample of MCs can help to understand the original sources of…