Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p41b1617c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P41B-1617
Mathematics
Logic
[6019] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Gravitational Fields, [6055] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Surfaces, [6099] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / General Or Miscellaneous, [6205] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Asteroids
Scientific paper
Small-scale topography is key to characterizing surface morphology and geological processes on small bodies as well as planets. Small bodies are typically irregular in shape, and numerical calculations of surface gravitational and centrifugal potential as well as surface effective gravity are essential for studying the sedimentation and mass motion of surface materials. Evidence of such processes is found on all small bodies observed to date at sufficient resolution. For Eros and Itokawa, the two objects studied from rendezvous, the measured gravity field is consistent with a body of constant density. Werner and Scheeres (1997) introduced an exact method for calculating the potential of constant-density, polyhedral bodies with a sum over surface polygon faces and another sum over polygon edges. For applications to Eros and Itokawa, we have used a simpler, approximate method for calculating the effective potential and effective gravity of a small body, summing over facets of plate models in which the surface is tessellated into triangular plates (Cheng et al. 2001 and 2002). This calculation method approximates the potential recognizing that the actual surface is not polyhedral but is approximated as such. Here we use high-resolution shape models of an arbitrary ellipsoid, Eros, and Itokawa to make quantitative comparisons of the effective potential and gravity calculated from the exact polyhedral method, the approximate method, and a spherical harmonic method applied outside the body.
Barnouin Olivier S.
Cheng Andrew F.
Ernst Carolyn M.
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