20.07.2015 Views

Forming Binary Near-Earth Asteroids From Tidal Disruptions

Forming Binary Near-Earth Asteroids From Tidal Disruptions

Forming Binary Near-Earth Asteroids From Tidal Disruptions

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

∼100 km are rubble piles.1.6 This DissertationThis dissertation was designed to investigate the role of tidal disruption in the formationof binary NEAs. At the heart of this work is the attempt to answer the following threequestions,1. What are the properties of tidal-disruption-formed binaries and how do they compareto the observed NEA binaries?2. What is the spin and shape distribution for small MBAs, how does it compare toNEAs and large MBAs?3. What is the overall steady-state binary fraction for NEAs caused by tidal disruption?We present theoretical and observational studies to address all three questions in thefollowing chapters. First, in Chapter 2, we describe our models of the tidal disruptionof strengthless “rubble pile” asteroids, using N-body simulations. Results from manysimulations covering a large parameter space are presented, with characterization of thebinaries formed.In Chapter 3 an observing campaign designed to study the shape and spin of smallMBAs is presented. Observations of 28 asteroids are combined with previously publishedlightcurves to determine the shape and spin distribution for small MBAs.The results from the observations in Chapter 3 are used along with the simulation resultsin Chapter 2, to create a steady-state model of the binary NEA population presentedin Chapter 4. This model tracks binary NEAs as they are formed, evolve and eventuallyreplaced when they reach the end of their lifetime.In Chapter 5 we summarize the main results and present conclusions.25

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!