Production of Near-Earth Asteroids on Retrograde Orbits

Details Production of Near-Earth Asteroids on Retrograde Orbits Production of Near-Earth Asteroids on Retrograde Orbits

Apr 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012apj...749l..39g&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 749, Issue 2, article id. L39 (2012).

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Celestial Mechanics, Meteorites, Meteors, Meteoroids, Minor Planets, Asteroids: General

Scientific paper

While computing an improved near-Earth object (NEO) steady-state orbital distribution model, we discovered in the numerical integrations the unexpected production of retrograde orbits for asteroids that had originally exited from the accepted main-belt source regions. Our model indicates that ~0.1% (a factor of two uncertainty) of the steady-state NEO population (perihelion q < 1.3 AU) is on retrograde orbits. These rare outcomes typically happen when asteroid orbits flip to a retrograde configuration while in the 3:1 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter and then live for ~0.001 to 100 Myr. The model predicts, given the estimated near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population, that a few retrograde 0.1-1 km NEAs should exist. Currently, there are two known MPC NEOs with asteroidal designations on retrograde orbits which we therefore claim could be escaped asteroids instead of devolatilized comets. This retrograde NEA population may also answer a long-standing question in the meteoritical literature regarding the origin of high-strength, high-velocity meteoroids on retrograde orbits.

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