Preferential Production of Contact Binary Asteroids with Components of Similar Mass via Angular Momentum Loss

Details Preferential Production of Contact Binary Asteroids with Components of Similar Mass via Angular Momentum Loss Preferential Production of Contact Binary Asteroids with Components of Similar Mass via Angular Momentum Loss

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dda....40.1203t&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DDA meeting #40, #12.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.905

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

A configuration with two components in contact can be reached via the removal of angular momentum from a separated binary system until a fully despun, double synchronous, tidal end state no longer exists. Angular momentum lost due to spin-down by the YORP effect with a magnitude of order that found for the primary component of binary near-Earth asteroid (1862) Apollo can collapse a binary system with equal mass components in as little as tens of thousands of years (depending on the initial angular momentum), while smaller secondaries require two or more orders of magnitude longer to collapse. Two regimes exist depending on which of two timescales dominate: the timescale for tidal evolution to alter the component separation (similar masses) or the timescale for the loss of angular momentum to alter the position of the tidal end states (disparate masses). The comparatively rapid tidal evolution of a binary with similarly massive components allows for a more rapid collapse to a contact binary through spin-down. If binary near-Earth asteroids are formed in the near-Earth region rather than injected from the main belt, having to form and re-collapse within a dynamical lifetime of order 10 My, this process would favor a population of contact binaries dominated by those with components of similar mass or size. A population of equal mass contact binaries is supported by radar observations, though a resolution bias favors the recognition of such systems over those with greater component mass disparity.

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