Release of meteoroids from asteroids by Earth's tides

TL;DR

This study investigates how Earth's tidal forces during close flybys can cause meteoroids to escape from rubble-pile asteroids, forming a dispersed cloud with minimal orbital variation over centuries.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the orbital evolution of meteoroids released by Earth's tides during asteroid flybys within the Roche limit.

Findings

Released particles escape the parent asteroid.

Particles form a small cloud that disperses over 500 years.

Orbital elements show minimal dispersion during dispersal period.

Abstract

The orbital evolution of particles released from the surface of a rubble-pile body by Earth's tides during flyby within the Roche limit is studied. Test particles initially placed on the surface leave the surface and escape the parent body. Released particles remain in a relative small cloud for about 500 years and spread evenly along the orbit of the parent asteroid during next several hundred years. Their orbital elements exhibit very small dispersion in the mentioned time frame.