Forming Binary Near-Earth Asteroids From Tidal Disruptions

Figure 2.12: The final separations (a/R pri ) for different tidal evolution times for a binarystarting at a separation of 1 R pri as a function of their size ratio. The value for µQ usedwas 2.37 × 10 9 for a density of 2.2 g/cm 3 .in the future may also have high eccentricities.These evolution calculations are very dependent on ˜µ sec , for which the value used wasderived from a single well-studied binary, 2000 DP 107 . Not considered are other forceswhich may alter the binary on timescales comparable to those of mutual tidal forces, suchas planetary tidal encounters or thermal effects. Previous work on binary encounters withEarth or Venus out to 8 planet radii showed that orbit properties of the binary can be al-53