Cohesive forces prevent the rotational breakup of rubble-pile asteroid (29075) 1950 da

Ben Rozitis, Eric Maclennan, Joshua P. Emery

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

161 Scopus citations

Abstract

Space missions1 and ground-based observations2 have shown that some asteroids are loose collections of rubble rather thansolidbodies. The physical behaviour of such 'rubble-pile' asteroids has been traditionally described using only gravitational and frictional forces within a granularmaterial3. Cohesive forces in the formof small van derWaals forces between constituent grains have recently been predicted to be important for small rubble piles (ten kilometres across or less), and could potentially explain fast rotation rates in the smallasteroid population4-6. The strongest evidence so far has come from an analysis of the rotational breakup of themain-belt cometP/2013 R3 (ref. 7), although that was indirect and poorly constrained by observations. Here we report that the kilometre-sized asteroid (29075) 1950DA(ref. 8) is a rubble pile that is rotating faster than is allowed by gravity and friction. We find that cohesive forces are required to prevent surface mass shedding and structural failure, and that the strengths of the forces are comparable to, though somewhat less than, the forces found between the grains of lunar regolith.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)174-176
Number of pages3
JournalNature
Volume512
Issue number7513
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 14 2014
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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