COMITO , Carlo

Binary asteroids play a role of primary importance in determining some physical parameters difficult to measure from Earth, such as the mass. By studying the origin of binaries in the general frame of gravitational aggregates, we can use them as natural laboratories for granular system physics in microgravity conditions, thus obtaining valuable...

Asteroid shapes and satellites: role of gravitational reaccumulation. Following current evidences, it is widely accepted that many asteroids would be "gravitational aggregates", i.e. bodies lacking internal cohesion. They could mainly be originated during the catastrophic disruption of some parent bodies, through the gravitational...

There have been attempts in the past to fit the observed bulk shapes (axial ratios) of asteroids to theoretical equilibrium figures for fluids, but these attempts have not been successful in many cases, evidently because asteroids are not fluid bodies. So far, however, the observed distribution of asteroid macroscopic shapes has never been...