Retrograde spins of near-Earth asteroids from the Yarkovsky effect (original) (raw)

Nature volume 428, pages 400–401 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Dynamical resonances in the asteroid belt are the gateway for the production of near-Earth asteroids1 (NEAs). To generate the observed number of NEAs, however, requires the injection of many asteroids into those resonant regions. Collisional processes have long been claimed as a possible source1,2,3, but difficulties with that idea have led to the suggestion that orbital drift arising from the Yarkovsky effect4,5,6,7 dominates the injection process8,9,10. (The Yarkovsky effect is a force arising from differential heating—the ‘afternoon’ side of an asteroid is warmer than the ‘morning’ side.) The two models predict different rotational properties of NEAs: the usual collisional theories2 are consistent with a nearly isotropic distribution of rotation vectors, whereas the ‘Yarkovsky model’ predicts an excess of retrograde rotations. Here we report that the spin vectors of NEAs show a strong and statistically significant excess of retrograde rotations, quantitatively consistent with the theoretical expectations of the Yarkovsky model.

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Figure 1: Latitude distributions for main belt asteroids and NEAs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by MIUR (Italy), KBN (Poland) and the Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic). We thank D. Vokrouhlicky and S. Shore for comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Pisa, via Buonarroti 2, I-56127, Pisa, Italy
    A. La Spina
  2. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa, via Buonarroti 2, I-56127, Pisa, Italy
    P. Paolicchi
  3. Astronomical Observatory, Adam Mickiewicz University, Sloneczna 36, 60286, Poznań, Poland
    A. Kryszczyńska
  4. Astronomical Institute AS CR, Fricova 1, CZ-25165, Ondrejov, Czech Republic
    P. Pravec

Authors

  1. A. La Spina
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  2. P. Paolicchi
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  3. A. Kryszczyńska
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  4. P. Pravec
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Correspondence toP. Paolicchi.

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La Spina, A., Paolicchi, P., Kryszczyńska, A. et al. Retrograde spins of near-Earth asteroids from the Yarkovsky effect.Nature 428, 400–401 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02411

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