Are Asteroid Shapes Compatible With Gravitational Reaccumulation?
- Others:
- Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur ; COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)
- Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Ephémérides (IMCCE) ; Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris ; Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- INAF/OATo, Italy
- University of Maryland
Description
Several lines of evidences suggest that, after the breakup following a catastrophic disruption, the fragments can form asteroids that are kept together only by gravity. The details of the gravitational reaccumulation process are however poorly known. In particular, the angular momentum transported by the fragments could directly influence the final shape of the resulting aggregate. We investigated the origin of asteroids shapes by simulating the gravitational collapse of a set of mono-disperse spherical particles, and by studying the way they form the aggregate. We next compare the resulting aggregate's shape to possible equilibrium figures corresponding to theoretical models. The results show, that only a precise category of shapes (flattened spheroids) are created via this mechanism. This may provide interesting constraints on the evolution of asteroid shapes, in particular for those with one, or more, satellites.
Abstract
International audience
Additional details
- URL
- https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03734505
- URN
- urn:oai:HAL:hal-03734505v1
- Origin repository
- UNICA