Binary Asteroids in the Near-Earth Object Population
Abstract
Radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2000 DP107 show that it is composed of an ∼800-meter-diameter primary and an ∼300-meter-diameter secondary revolving around their common center of mass. The orbital period of 1.755 ± 0.007 days and semimajor axis of 2620 ± 160 meters constrain the total mass of the system to 4.6 ± 0.5 × 10^(11) kilograms and the bulk density of the primary to 1.7 ± 1.1 grams per cubic centimeter. This system and other binary near-Earth asteroids have spheroidal primaries spinning near the breakup point for strengthless bodies, suggesting that the binaries formed by spin-up and fission, probably as a result of tidal disruption during close planetary encounters. About 16% of near-Earth asteroids larger than 200 meters in diameter may be binary systems.
Additional Information
© 2002 American Association for the Advancement of Science. 21 March 2002; accepted 3 April 2002. Published online 11 April 2002. We thank P. Nicholson, P. Goldreich, W. Bottke, and E. Asphaug for fruitful discussions on tidal deformation and evolution, and the staffs at Goldstone and Arecibo for assistance with the observations. J.L.M. thanks S. Kulkarni for financial support. The Arecibo Observatory is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, which is operated by Cornell University under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation and with support from NASA. This work was supported in part by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, operated by the California Institute of Technology under contract with NASA.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 51950
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- CaltechAUTHORS:20141119-100005277
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- NASA
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
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2014-11-19Created from EPrint's datestamp field
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2023-01-20Created from EPrint's last_modified field