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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

ContentsList of TablesList of Figuresviiiix1 Introduction 11.1 Scientific Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.1.1 Why binary asteroids are interesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.1.2 <strong>Binary</strong> near-<strong>Earth</strong> asteroids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.1.3 <strong>Binary</strong> Main-Belt asteroids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.2 <strong>Binary</strong> Formation Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.2.1 Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121.2.2 Collisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121.2.3 Rotational disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141.3 Shape and Spin Distributions for NEAs and MBAs . . . . . . . . . . . . 171.3.1 Existing lightcurve data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171.3.2 Recent studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181.3.3 Motivation for work on small MBAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191.4 Steady-State Models of the NEA Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201.4.1 <strong>Near</strong>-<strong>Earth</strong> asteroid population dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211.5 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221.5.1 <strong>Tidal</strong> disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221.5.2 Rubble piles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241.6 This Dissertation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Formation of <strong>Binary</strong> <strong>Asteroids</strong> via <strong>Tidal</strong> Disruption of Rubble Piles 262.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262.2 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272.2.1 Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272.2.2 Progenitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272.2.3 <strong>Tidal</strong> encounters and initial conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302.2.4 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32v

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

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!