Asteroid Systems: Binaries, Triples, and Pairs
Abstract
In the past decade, the number of known binary near-Earth asteroids has more than quadrupled and the number of known large main-belt asteroids with satellites has doubled. Half a dozen triple asteroids have been discovered, and the previously unrecognized populations of asteroid pairs and small main-belt binaries have been identified. The current observational evidence confirms that small (≲20 km) binaries form by rotational fission and establishes that the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect powers the spin-up process. A unifying paradigm based on rotational fission and post-fission dynamics can explain the formation of small binaries, triples, and pairs. Large (>~20 km) binaries with small satellites are most likely created during large collisions.
- Publication:
-
Asteroids IV
- Pub Date:
- 2015
- DOI:
- 10.2458/azu_uapress_9780816532131-ch019
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1504.00034
- Bibcode:
- 2015aste.book..355M
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 31 pages, 12 figures. Chapter in the book ASTEROIDS IV (in press)