In this chapter the assumption of uniform rotation is removed. Many asteroids are non-uniform rotators, potentially due to several different causes. These include spin-down due to the YORP effect, which can make an asteroid more susceptible to perturbing torques, and tumbling due to a close planetary flyby, an asteroid fission event, or an impact. Comets are also believed to often be in such a spin state due to outgassing jets on the surface that are activated around every perihelion passage. Strong evidence exists for several comets being in non-uniform rotation states including Halley and Encke [149, 12]. Once in a tumbling mode, we assume that the body will approximately follow the torque-free rigid-body dynamics described earlier. While this is not exactly true, due to solar radiation pressure torques, gravitational perturbations, and internal dissipation effects, over timespans of interest for the motion of a particle or spacecraft in the asteroid frame this is a good assumption.


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    Title :

    Complex Rotators: Asteroid 4179 Toutatis


    Additional title:

    Springer Praxis Books (formerly: Springer-Praxis Series)


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2012-03-20


    Size :

    14 pages





    Type of media :

    Article/Chapter (Book)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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