Formation of moons and equatorial ridge around top-shaped asteroids after surface landslide

TL;DR

This study uses long-term simulations to show how surface landslides on fast-spinning top-shaped asteroids can lead to the formation of moons and equatorial ridges, explaining observed features of near-Earth asteroids.

Contribution

It provides a detailed dynamical evolution model linking surface landslides to moon formation and ridge development on top-shaped asteroids.

Findings

Moons can form within approximately 300 hours after landslides.

Re-accretion of particles creates natural equatorial ridges.

The mass of formed moons matches observed asteroid satellites.

Abstract

Top-shaped asteroids have been observed among near-Earth asteroids. About half of them are reported to have moons (on the order of $\sim 1$wt.\% of the top-shaped primary) and many of them have an equatorial ridge. A recent study has shown that the enigmatic top-shaped figure of asteroids (e.g., Ryugu, Bennu, and Didymos) could result from an axisymmetric landslide of the primary during a fast spin-up near the breakup rotation period. Such a landslide would inevitably form a particulate disk around an asteroid with a short timescale ($\sim 3$ hours). However, the long-term full dynamical evolution is not investigated. Here, we perform a continuous simulation ($\sim 700$ hours) that investigates the sequence of events from the surface landslide that forms a top-shaped asteroid and a particulate disk to disk evolution. We show that the disk quickly spreads and produces moons (within $\sim 300$ hours). The mass of the formed moon is consistent with what is observed around the top-shaped asteroids. We also demonstrate that an equatorial ridge is naturally formed because a fraction of the disk particles re-accretes selectively onto the equatorial region of the primary. We envision that Ryugu and Bennu could once have an ancient moon that was later lost due to a successive moon's orbital evolution. Alternatively, at the top-shaped asteroid that has a moon, such as Didymos, no significant orbital evolution of the moon has occurred that would result in its loss. Our study would also be qualitatively applicable to any rubble-pile asteroids near the breakup rotation period.