Dynamics Of Dust Fines On Asteroids: Applications To Eros And Itokawa

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

The mechanics of fine grained regolith and dust on the surface of asteroids are subject to additional force perturbations beyond the gravitational and rotational accelerations on the surface of the body. Electromagnetic levitation and solar radiation pressure can play an important role in controlling the distribution and number of fines on the surface of an asteroid. Incorporating these effects for the motion of dust grains lofted from the surface of an asteroid modifies the slope patterns over a body's surface and the escape speeds of these particles. These effects can lead to differentiation between dust fines of different mass to area ratio and to the depletion of dust fines on the surface smaller than a characteristic size and density.
We apply these theoretical considerations to precision models of asteroids Eros and Itokawa, using 1.5 million vector models of these bodies estimated from spacecraft imaging, and incorporating proper illumination geometry. This allows us to compute the minimum size dust fines that are likely to be retained on the surface and to identify local basins on the bodies where fines can be trapped. As radiometric properties of surfaces are strongly influenced by small-scale structure, this work has implications for remote observations of asteroids.
This research was supported by a grant from the NASA Office of Space Science's Discovery Data Analysis Program.

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