Collaborative Research: Tidal disruption of near-Earth asteroids

合作研究：近地小行星的潮汐破坏

• 批准号: 2108441
• 负责人: Derek Richardson
• 金额: $ 9.79万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2108441&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Tidal; disruption; near

This collaborative project between Southwest Research Institute and the University of Maryland College Park studies how gravitational forces can reshape or tear apart near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). “Rubble-pile” asteroids (which are loose collections of material) and comets are known to reshape or come apart, through a process known as tidal distortion and disruption, as they pass close to planets. This research team will use computer simulations with inputs from observations to examine how tidal disruption changes the population of NEAs. They will address topics such as how many fragments are created, what their orbits are, and how many odd shapes can be attributed to the process. This will provide important insight into their history and potential futures and has relevance to planetary defense. The broader impacts leverage the interest of the general public in NEAs to continue a long-running public outreach program and to build an accessible toolset and lesson plan for wide use.Near-Earth asteroids are some of the closest and therefore best-studied objects in the Solar System, yet it is not known how pervasive the effects of tidal disruption could be among NEAs. This research team will model the interaction of rubble-pile asteroids having close flybys of terrestrial planets. They will determine whether their soft-sphere discrete code can produce some of the irregularly shaped NEAs, re-process their surfaces, and alter the size and orbital distribution of near-Earth asteroids. Through accurate modeling of the surface interactions between particles, this group will capture the effect of frictional forces and irregular shaped constituent pieces for a complete suite of tidal disruption models. Testing over the entire range of possible encounter scenarios (close approach and velocity) for the terrestrial planets, including a range of spin states (spin axis orientation and spin rates) and internal structure (large interior blocks), will be used to create a catalog of outcomes necessary to estimate how widely this process has altered the near-Earth population and be able to estimate the bodies most likely to have been affected.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个西南研究所和马里兰大学帕克分校的合作项目研究了引力如何重塑或撕裂近地小行星（NEAs）。众所周知，“碎石堆”小行星（松散的物质集合）和彗星在接近行星时，会通过潮汐扭曲和破坏的过程重塑或分裂。这个研究小组将使用计算机模拟和观测输入来研究潮汐破坏如何改变近地天体的数量。他们将讨论诸如有多少碎片被创造出来，它们的轨道是什么，以及有多少奇怪的形状可以归因于这个过程。这将为了解它们的历史和潜在的未来提供重要的见解，并与行星防御有关。更广泛的影响影响了一般公众对nea的兴趣，以继续长期的公共推广计划，并建立一个可访问的工具集和广泛使用的课程计划。近地小行星是太阳系中离我们最近的天体之一，因此也是研究得最好的天体之一，但目前尚不清楚潮汐破坏的影响在近地天体中有多普遍。这个研究小组将模拟近距离飞掠类地行星的碎石堆小行星之间的相互作用。他们将确定他们的软球离散代码是否可以产生一些不规则形状的近地小行星，重新处理它们的表面，并改变近地小行星的大小和轨道分布。通过对颗粒之间表面相互作用的精确建模，该小组将捕获摩擦力和不规则形状组成块的影响，以形成一套完整的潮汐破坏模型。对类地行星的整个可能遭遇场景范围（近距离接近和速度）进行测试，包括一系列自旋状态（自转轴方向和自旋速率）和内部结构（大的内部块），将用于创建必要的结果目录，以估计这一过程对近地人口的改变程度，并能够估计最有可能受到影响的天体。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。