Related papers: Analytical modeling of the gravitational potential…
This study aims to establish an analytical model that reproduces the gravitational field around non-spherical bodies with constant density. Due to the non-spherical geometry of such bodies, their gravitational potential is disturbed…
One of the most accurate models currently used to represent the gravity field of irregular bodies is the polyhedral approach. In this model, the mass of the body is assumed to be homogeneous, which may not be true for a real object. The…
We seek the best size estimates of the asteroid (21) Lutetia, the direction of its spin axis, and its bulk density, assuming its shape is well described by a smooth featureless triaxial ellipsoid, and to evaluate the deviations from this…
Aims. We determine the physical properties (spin state and shape) of asteroid (21) Lutetia, target of the ESA Rosetta mission, to help in preparing for observations during the flyby on 2010 July 10 by predicting the orientation of Lutetia…
The goal of the present paper is to develop a simplified model to describe the gravitational fields of elongated asteroids. The proposed model consists of representing an elongated asteroid using a triple-particle-linkage system distributed…
In asteroid rendezvous missions, the dynamical environment near the asteroid's surface should be made clear prior to the mission launch. However, most of the asteroids have irregular shapes, which lower the efficiency of calculating their…
The asteroid (21) Lutetia is the target of a planned close encounter by the Rosetta spacecraft in July 2010. To prepare for that flyby, Lutetia has been extensively observed by a variety of astronomical facilities. We used the Hubble Space…
We present a comparison of our results from ground-based observations of asteroid (21) Lutetia with imaging data acquired during the flyby of the asteroid by the ESA Rosetta mission. This flyby provided a unique opportunity to evaluate and…
The method of weighted least squares is widely used in parameter estimation problems such as asteroid orbit determination. A key difficulty is the treatment of observational uncertainties, especially when combining heterogeneous datasets…
We present a combination of tools which allows for investigation of the coupled orbital and rotational dynamics of two rigid bodies with nearly arbitrary shape and mass distribution, under the influence of their mutual gravitational…
The need for more accurate asteroid models is perhaps secondary to the need to measure their quality. The uncertainties of models' parameters propagate to quantities like volume or density -- the most important and informative properties of…
We investigate the qualitative characteristics of a test particle attracted to an irregular elongated body, modeled as a non-homogeneous straight segment with a variable linear density. By deriving the potential function in closed form, we…
We investigate the problem of determining the shape of a rotating celestial object - e.g., a comet or an asteroid - under its own gravitational field. More specifically, we consider an object symmetric with respect to one axis - such as a…
The discovery of binary and triple asteroids in addition to the execution of space missions to minor celestial bodies in the past several years have focused increasing attention on periodic orbits around irregular-shaped celestial bodies.…
The determination of the gravitational potential by the polyhedral method is revisited in the case where the surface of a body is composed of triangular facets. Based upon six test-shapes of astrophysical interest (sphere, spheroid,…
A wide observational campaign was carried out in 2004-2009 aimed to complete the ground-based investigation of Lutetia prior to the Rosetta fly-by in July 2010. We have obtained BVRI photometric and V-band polarimetric measurements over a…
Galaxies are self-gravitating structures composed by several components encompassing spherical, axial and triaxial symmetry. Although real systems feature heterogeneous components whose properties are intimately connected, semi-analytical…
CONTEXT: In July 2010 the ESA spacecraft Rosetta will fly-by the main belt asteroid 21 Lutetia. Several observations of this asteroid have been so far performed, but its surface composition and nature are still a matter of debate. For long…
We present a new non-convex model of the binary asteroid (809) Lundia. A SAGE (Shaping Asteroids with Genetic Evolution) method using disc-integrated photometry only was used for deriving physical parameters of this binary system. The model…
The local character of self-gravity along with the number of spatial dimensions are critical issues when computing the potential and forces inside massive systems like stars and disks. This appears from the discretisation scale where each…