Limiting behavior of asteroid obliquity and spin using a semi-analytic thermal model of the YORP effect

TL;DR

This paper develops a semi-analytic model to understand how thermal properties influence the obliquity evolution of asteroids under the YORP effect, revealing new equilibrium states and alignment behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-analytic thermal model for YORP obliquity, extending previous zero-inertia results and explaining the origin of non-zero obliquity components.

Findings

Non-zero obliquity YORP component arises from thermal inertia.

Asteroids tend to align their equatorial planes with orbital planes.

New rotational equilibria influenced by thermal properties are identified.

Abstract

The Yarkovsky--O'Keefe--Radzievskii--Paddack (YORP) effect governs the spin evolution of small asteroids. The axial component of YORP, which alters the rotation rate of the asteroid, is mostly independent of its thermal inertia, while the obliquity component is very sensitive to the thermal model of the asteroid. Here we develop a semi-analytic theory for the obliquity component of YORP. We integrate an approximate thermal model over the surface of an asteroid, and find an analytic expression for the obliquity component in terms of two YORP coefficients. This approach allows us to investigate the overall evolution of asteroid rotation state, and to generalize the results previously obtained in the case of zero thermal inertia. The proposed theory also explains how a non-zero obliquity component of YORP originates even for a symmetric asteroid due to its finite thermal inertia. In many cases, this causes equatorial planes of asteroids to align with their orbital planes. The studied non-trivial behavior of YORP as a function of thermal model allows for a new kind of rotational equilibria, which can have important evolutionary consequences for asteroids.