Direct Detection of the Asteroidal YORP Effect

Details Direct Detection of the Asteroidal YORP Effect Direct Detection of the Asteroidal YORP Effect

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.0502l&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #5.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.415

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect is a torque that can modify the rotation rates and obliquities of small bodies in the solar system via the combined effects of incident solar radiation pressure and the recoil effect from anisotropic emission of thermal photons. The YORP effect is the only realistic mechanism for explaining the intriguing spin-axis alignments within the Koronis asteroid family, and quite possibly explains the anomalous distribution of spin rates for small asteroids. YORP is now thought to be an important mechanism in the formation of binary asteroid systems, and has a direct bearing on the related Yarkovsky effect, which affects the orbital motion of small asteroids. Despite its importance, there exists only indirect evidence for the presence of YORP on solar system objects, until now.
We conducted an optical-imaging monitoring campaign from 2001-2005 on a small near-Earth asteroid, 2000 PH5, now known as asteroid (54509) YORP. We found that the asteroid has been continuously increasing its sidereal rotation rate by (2.0 ± 0.2)*10-4 deg./day2, over this 4-yr period (Lowry et al., 2007, Science 316, 272-274). The observed YORP strength is consistent with detailed shape-model-based theoretical calculations of the effect (Taylor et al., 2007, Science 316, 274-277). We simulated the asteroid's close Earth approaches from 2001 to 2005, showing that gravitational torques cannot explain the observed spin rate increase. Dynamical simulations suggest that 2000 PH5 may reach a rotation period of just 20 seconds toward the end of its expected lifetime.

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