The effect of planetary flybys on singly synchronous binary asteroids

Meyer, Alex J.; Scheeres, Daniel J.

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114554

Cited by 16 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…As a brief analysis of the likelihood of finding Didymos in an excited state resulting from a planetary encounter, the findings in Meyer & Scheeres (2021) can be applied to Didymos. From the analytic formulae, a flyby that induces a 30°libration will also excite the eccentricity by about 0.1, on average.…”

Section: Possible Sources Of Pre-dart Impact Excitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The code is available as a free download 25 -it is a simple, fast, and opensource tool for modeling the coupled rotational and translational dynamics of two bodies with arbitrary mass distributions (Davis & Scheeres 2020). The code has since been modified to include third-body perturbations (Meyer & Scheeres 2021) and tidal dissipation (Ö. Karatekin 2022, in preparation).…”

Section: Full Rigid Two-body Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the relaxed-state assumption is well motivated (Pravec et al 2016 found that out of 29 close binary systems, only five were asynchronous), there are several possible sources of the dynamical excitation of the system that could result in a perturbation that is not fully damped by the time of DART's arrival. For example, Meyer & Scheeres (2021) demonstrated that a relaxed binary system can be pushed into a chaotic state by a close planetary flyby, which could lead to the tumbling of one or both of the components. Quillen et al (2022) predict that out-of-plane rotation in the secondary can be long lasting, and Ćuk et al (2021) also show that out-ofplane rotation can have significant effects on the dynamics.…”

Section: Possible Sources Of Pre-dart Impact Excitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictions for the Dynamical States of the Didymos System before and after the Planned DART Impact

Richardson¹,

Agrusa²,

Barbee³

et al. 2022

Planet. Sci. J.

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NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft is planned to impact the natural satellite of (65803) Didymos, Dimorphos, at around 23:14 UTC on 2022 September 26, causing a reduction in its orbital period that will be measurable with ground-based observations. This test of kinetic impactor technology will provide the first estimate of the momentum transfer enhancement factor β at a realistic scale, wherein the ejecta from the impact provide an additional deflection to the target. Earth-based observations, the LICIACube spacecraft (to be detached from DART prior to impact), and ESA’s follow-up Hera mission, to launch in 2024, will provide additional characterizations of the deflection test. Together, Hera and DART comprise the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment cooperation between NASA and ESA. Here, the predicted dynamical states of the binary system upon arrival and after impact are presented. The assumed dynamically relaxed state of the system will be excited by the impact, leading to an increase in eccentricity and a slight tilt of the orbit, together with enhanced libration of Dimorphos, with the amplitude dependent on the currently poorly known target shape. Free rotation around the moon’s long axis may also be triggered, and the orbital period will experience variations from seconds to minutes over timescales of days to months. Shape change of either body, due to cratering or mass wasting triggered by crater formation and ejecta, may affect β, but can be constrained through additional measurements. Both BYORP and gravity tides may cause measurable orbital changes on the timescale of Hera’s rendezvous.

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Section: Possible Sources Of Pre-dart Impact Excitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Full Rigid Two-body Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Possible Sources Of Pre-dart Impact Excitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Predictions for the Dynamical States of the Didymos System before and after the Planned DART Impact

Richardson¹,

Agrusa²,

Barbee³

et al. 2022

Planet. Sci. J.

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“…2-4. While "barrel instability" has not been discussed in detail in the binary asteroid literature, it has been observed in full two-body dynamics simulations using the gubas (General Use Binary Asteroid Simulator) code (Davis & Scheeres 2020;Meyer & Scheeres 2021;Agrusa et al 2021). Furthermore, this kind of rotational behavior has been seen in studies of spacecraft dynamics in the presence of a gravity gradient (Hughes 1986;Schaub et al 2009).…”

Section: Dynamical Behaviors In Numerical Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barrel Instability in Binary Asteroids

Ćuk¹,

Jacobson²,

Walsh³

2021

Preprint

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Most close-in planetary satellites are in synchronous rotation, which is usually the stable end-point of tidal despinning. Saturn's moon Hyperion is a notable exception by having a chaotic rotation. Hyperion's dynamical state is a consequence of its high eccentricity and its highly prolate shape (Wisdom et al. 1984). As many binary asteroids also have elongated secondaries, chaotic rotation is expected for moons in eccentric binaries ( Ćuk & Nesvorný 2010), and a minority of asteroidal secondaries may be in that state (Pravec et al. 2016). The question of secondary rotation is also important for the action of the BYORP effect, which can quickly evolve orbits of synchronous (but not non-synchronous) secondaries ( Ćuk & Burns 2005). Here we report results of a large set of short numerical simulations which indicate that, apart from synchronous and classic chaotic rotation, close-in irregularly-shaped asteroidal secondaries can occupy an additional, intermediate rotational state. In this "barrel instability" the secondary slowly rolls along its long axis, while the longest axis is staying largely aligned with the primary-secondary line. This behavior may be more difficult to detect through lightcurves than a fully chaotic rotation, but would likewise shut down BYORP. We show that the binary's eccentricity, separation measured in secondary's radii and the secondary's shape are all important for determining whether the system settles in synchronous rotation, chaotic tumbling, or barrel instability. We compare our results for synthetic asteroids with known binary pairs to determine which of these behaviors may be present in the Near-Earth Asteroid binary population.

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“…In order to capture the coupled spin and orbital motion of the secondary, we used the General Use Binary Asteroid Simulator (gubas), an efficient rigid full two-body problem (F2BP) code (Davis & Scheeres 2020a. gubas has been benchmarked against other F2BP simulation codes and has been used extensively to study the dynamics of Didymos and other binary systems (Agrusa et al 2020;Davis & Scheeres 2020b;Meyer & Scheeres 2021;. In accordance with previous studies, the gubas simulations expand the gravitational potential of the polyhedral shape models to degree and order 4 to adequately capture their irregular gravity fields.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotation-induced granular motion on the secondary component of binary asteroids: Application to the DART impact on Dimorphos

Agrusa

Ballouz

Meyer

et al. 2022

A&A

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Context. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will kinetically impact Dimorphos, the secondary component of the Didymos binary asteroid system, which will excite Dimorphos’s dynamical state and lead to significant libration about the synchronous state and possibly chaotic non-principal axis rotation. Although this particular outcome is human caused, many other secondary components of binary systems are also prone to such exotic spin states. Aims. For a satellite in an excited spin state, the time-varying tidal and rotational environment can lead to significant surface accelerations. Depending on the circumstances, this mechanism may drive granular motion on the surface of the secondary. Methods. We modeled the dynamical evolution of a Didymos-like binary asteroid system using a fully coupled, three-dimensional simulation code. Then, we computed the time-varying gravitational and rotational accelerations felt over the entire surface resulting from the secondary’s perturbed dynamical state. Results. We find that an excited spin and orbit can induce large changes in the effective surface slope, potentially triggering granular motion and surface refreshment. However, for the case of the DART impact, this effect is highly dependent on many unknowns, such as Dimorphos’s detailed shape, bulk density, surface geology, and the momentum transferred. Aside from the Didymos system and the DART mission, this effect also has important implications for binary systems in general.

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The effect of planetary flybys on singly synchronous binary asteroids

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

Predictions for the Dynamical States of the Didymos System before and after the Planned DART Impact

Predictions for the Dynamical States of the Didymos System before and after the Planned DART Impact

Barrel Instability in Binary Asteroids

Rotation-induced granular motion on the secondary component of binary asteroids: Application to the DART impact on Dimorphos

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