Physics – Geophysics
Scientific paper
Jul 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dda....38.1403s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #38, #14.03
Physics
Geophysics
Scientific paper
The minimum energy configurations of two massive rigid bodies resting on each other are explored. Portions of this work have been described in (D.J. Scheeres, Rotational fission of contact binary asteroids, Icarus (2007)). For analytical tractability we restrict ourselves to rigid ellipsoids and spheres resting on each other. For an arbitrary ellipsoid shape and mass distribution between the sphere and ellipsoid, we can delineate a discrete number of resting and orbiting equilibria as a function of the system angular momentum. Both resting and orbiting equilibria have the sphere lying along or on a principal axis of the ellipsoid, with a specified rotation rate. For a given value of angular momentum, the total energy of each relative equilibria can be evaluated and the minimum energy state identified. For such a system, then, the minimum energy configuration will be the stable configuration, as all other configurations could potentially transition to the minimum energy configuration.
If we take such a resting equilibria to be a model for a contact binary asteroid and consider the effect of non-gravitational torques acting on the body (i.e., YORP), the angular momentum of the system can change secularly. As the angular momentum of the system increases or decreases, the minimum energy configuration of the system can change, leading to the asteroid existing in an excited state that would be susceptible to reconfiguration given some external perturbation such as a planetary flyby or an impact. Depending on the ellipsoid shape and mass distribution between the ellipsoid and sphere, there are up to 5 different stability transitions that can occur as the system angular momentum is increased from near zero to values at which fission into an orbiting binary will occur.
This research was funded by a grant from the NASA Office of Space Science Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program.
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