Satellites of asteroids.

The discovery of a probable satellite of a minor planet during the occultation of a star on 7 June 1978 and additional photoelectric events during another such occultation on 11 December 1978 have led to the realization that anomalous sightings during previous occultations of stars by minor planets are possibly also due to satellites. Some features of minor planet lightcurves may be modeled in terms of the rotation of contact binary asteroids, or in terms of eclipsing and shadowing events by orbiting satellites. Calculations show that satellites are gravitationally bound out to distances of about 100 times the diameter of the primary. Although the large satellites are probably collisionally stable over the solar system's lifetime, the time scales for tidal evolution are much smaller, typically 10,000 to 10,000,000 yr. A dynamical model for a minor planet, and by extension one for comets and fireballs, is presented.