[Baps] Cuk talk: Friday at noon at CfA

[Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay]

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16 at Noon

**YORP and Small Binary Asteroids

Dr. Matija Cuk

University of British Columbia

Phillips Auditorium, 60 Garden Street

*Abstract:* During the last decade the field of small-body dynamics
underwent a revolution as the importance of radiation-related perturbations
(Yarkovsky and YORP effects) became widely recognized. Yarkovsky effect
(which affects orbital motion) is now thought to affect the structure of
asteroid families and to be the main mechanism for delivery of meteorites to
Earth. The YORP effect (which changes rotation) is responsible for the
non-collisional distribution of small asteroid spins and aligned spin-axes
in the Koronis family. Few years ago we proposed that a variant of YORP
effect could strongly perturb and severely limit the lifetime of small
binary asteroids, which are nevertheless very common in the Near-Earth
Asteroid population. More recent observations suggest that most small
binaries are also formed by YORP spin-up and mass-shedding, making their
whole life-cycle radiation-dominated. I will present both the theoretical
and observational constraints on the evolution of small binaries (primary
diameter 10 km), and show that they are likely to be among the youngest
Solar System objects.
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/events/calendar/latest.html
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