Surface slopes of asteroid pairs as indicators of mechanical properties and cohesion

TL;DR

This study maps surface slopes of asteroid pairs to infer their mechanical properties and cohesion, revealing that these bodies are denser and require cohesion to withstand rapid rotation without disintegrating.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze asteroid surface slopes and failure conditions, providing new insights into their density and cohesion related to rotational stability.

Findings

Asteroid pairs are denser than sub-kilometer bodies, with densities >2 g/cm³.

Cohesion levels of hundreds of Pascals are necessary to prevent disruption.

Shape models only reach the spin barrier at higher bulk densities.

Abstract

Asteroid pairs had a single progenitor that split due to rotational-fission of a weak, rubble-pile structured body. By constructing shape models of asteroid pairs from multiple-apparition observations and using a lightcurve inversion technique, we mapped the gravitational and rotational accelerations on the surfaces of these asteroids. This allows us to construct a map of local slopes on the asteroids' surfaces. In order to test for frictional failure, we determine the maximum rotation rate at which an area larger than half the surface area of the secondary member (assumed to be the ejected component) has a slope value greater than 40 degrees, the angle of friction of lunar regolith, where loose material will begin sliding. We use this criterion to constrain the failure stress operating on the body, just before disruption at the commonly observed spin barrier of 2.2 h. Our current sample includes shape models of eleven primary members of asteroid pairs, observed from the Wise Observatory in the last decade. In the studied parameter space we find that the shape models only reach the spin barrier when their bulk density is larger than the ~2 gr cm-3 measured for the rubble pile structured 25143 Itokawa, suggesting that km-sized asteroid pairs are dense compared to sub-km bodies. Assuming ejection of secondary components that are larger than those observed (up to the maximal size allowing separation), can also increase the spin barrier of the asteroids, thus supporting the previously suggested scenario of continuous disruption of the secondary. In addition, cohesion levels of hundreds of Pascals are also required to prevent these shape models from disrupting at spin rates slower than the usual spin barrier.