Asteroid 2017 FZ2 et al.: signs of recent mass-shedding from YORP?

TL;DR

This paper investigates the recent mass-shedding signs of asteroid 2017 FZ2, its orbital history, and the potential link to the YORP effect, suggesting a possible connection to asteroid population dynamics.

Contribution

It presents the first direct detection of the YORP effect on an asteroid and explores the hypothesis that mass shedding from YORP influences NEA orbital distributions.

Findings

2017 FZ2 was a quasi-satellite of Earth before 2017 March 23.

Simulations suggest 2017 FZ2 experienced past quasi-satellite engagements.

An excess of NEAs in similar orbits may result from YORP-related mass shedding.

Abstract

The first direct detection of the asteroidal YORP effect, a phenomenon that changes the spin states of small bodies due to thermal reemission of sunlight from their surfaces, was obtained for (54509) YORP 2000 PH5. Such an alteration can slowly increase the rotation rate of asteroids, driving them to reach their fission limit and causing their disruption. This process can produce binaries and unbound asteroid pairs. Secondary fission opens the door to the eventual formation of transient but genetically-related groupings. Here, we show that the small near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 2017 FZ2 was a co-orbital of our planet of the quasi-satellite type prior to their close encounter on 2017 March 23. Because of this flyby with the Earth, 2017 FZ2 has become a non-resonant NEA. Our N-body simulations indicate that this object may have experienced quasi-satellite engagements with our planet in the past and it may return as a co-orbital in the future. We identify a number of NEAs that follow similar paths, the largest named being YORP, which is also an Earth's co-orbital. An apparent excess of NEAs moving in these peculiar orbits is studied within the framework of two orbit population models. A possibility that emerges from this analysis is that such an excess, if real, could be the result of mass shedding from YORP itself or a putative larger object that produced YORP. Future spectroscopic observations of 2017 FZ2 during its next visit in 2018 (and of related objects when feasible) may be able to confirm or reject this interpretation.