In this thesis, we study the influence of heterogeneous distribution of optical and thermal properties on asteroid surfaces onto the YORP effect. Modelling of the surface heterogeneities is done in three ways. In the first one, we create an impact crater with higher albedo regolith on a regolith-covered asteroid. In the second way, we suppose presence of higher albedo regolith on steep slopes (slope angle > 35◦ ) and in the third one, we state properties of bare rock (with different thermal parameters) in these areas. Then we evaluate the influence of torques caused by scattered or thermally emitted radiation on 200 asteroids based on different distribution of described parameters by means of statistics. We have found that the presence of heterogeneities caused by landslides on asteroid surfaces does not significantly affect the YORP effect with two exceptions: a slight inclination to decelerate the rotation in the case of landslides uncovering bare rock due to critical rotation and significant preference for deceleration in the configurations with uncovered higher albedo regolith on steep slopes. Our data suggest that the influence of heterogeneous distribution of optical properties caused by landslides on the value of typical acceleration time, so-called doubling time td, is 2 % and it does not exceed 5 % in the case...

Résidus du disque primitif dans lequel les planètes se sont formées, les astéroïdes et les comètes fournissent des contraintes sur les processus de formation et d’évolution du système solaire. A partir des images de la mission Rosetta, l’objectif de cette thèse est de caractériser les morphologies de surface de ces petits corps, et d’en étudier les processus qui ont permis de les former et de les faire évoluer.Sur l’astéroïde (21) Lutetia, le relief est contrôlé par les impacts, formant des cratères, des nappes d’éjectas, des fractures et des boulders.Sur la comète 67P, la région Imhotep, située au niveau de l’équateur, présente des terrains lisses et des terrains consolidés très fracturés. Elle est la seule région à présenter des dizaines de structures circulaires de moins de 60 m de diamètre, probablement très anciennes (Ga), que l’on trouve associées à des couches stratifiées de quelques mètres d’épaisseur. Lors du passage au périhélie, des changements de grande envergure se sont produits dans les terrains lisses ; ils pourraient être liés aux contraintes mécaniques opérant dans le sous-sol de la comète. Un type particulier de fractures observé en surface de 67P a aussi été étudié. Ces fractures se joignent pour former des polygones 3 m en moyenne. Ces polygones résultent probablement des fortes variations de température en surface et en subsurface. Plus généralement, les observations et les travaux d’interprétation à partir des données de la mission Rosetta montrent que les morphologies de surface sur 67P sont autant dues à sa formation et à des processus endogènes qu’à des processus exogènes et évolutifs tels que la sublimation ou les contraintes thermiques. / Residuals from the accretion disk in which planets formed, asteroids and comets provide important constraints on the solar system formation and evolution processes. Based on the images from the Rosetta mission, the main objectives of this thesis are to characterize the morphologies at the surface of these small bodies and to study the processes responsible for their formation and evolution.On asteroid (21) Lutetia, the relief is controlled by impacts, forming craters, ejecta blankets, fractures and boulders.On the nucleus of comet 67P, the Imhotep region, located at the equator of the nucleus, presents smooth terrains and consolidated terrains, heavily fractured. It is the only region that shows tens of circular features less than 60 m in size, probably ancient, which we find associated with layers of several meters thick. During the passage at perihelion, major changes occurred in smooth terrains ; they may be linked to mechanical stresses acting in the nucleus subsurface. A particular type of fractures observed at the surface of 67P has also been studied in detail. These fractures join each other in polygons of roughly 3 m in size. These polygons probably result from the strong variations of temperature at the surface and subsurface. More generally, the observations and their interpretation from Rosetta data show that the morphologies at the surface of 67P can result from its formation and endogeneous processes, as well as from exogeneous and evolutionary processes such as the sublimation of ices or thermal stresses.

Orientador: Valerio Carruba / Banca: Ernesto Vieira Neto / Banca: Fernando Virgilio Roig / Resumo: Asteroides de alta inclinação são objetos com sin(i) > 0.3. Entre estes asteroides podemos distinguir objetos com inclinação menor que o centro da ressonância secular ν6 = g−g6 e objetos com inclinação superior. Os atuais mecanismos de mobilidade dinâmica não podem aumentar facilmente inclinações menores do que do centro da ressonância ν6. A presença de objetos de alta inclinação pode, portanto, estar relacionada com fases iniciais do Sistema Solar. Neste trabalho obtemos elementos próprios sintéticos para a região da família de Pallas, encontramos grupos dinâmicos e determinamos a significância estatística destes grupos. Estudamos a evolução dinâmica devida a perturbações planetárias e efeitos não gravitacionais das famílias e clumps identificados na região das famílias de Pallas e Hansa (Carruba 2010b). Estudamos regiões dinamicamente estáveis, que são surpreendentemente caracterizadas por um número muito baixo de asteroides, contrariamente a objetos de baixa inclinação que ocupam tudo a região dinamicamente viável. Identificamos duas areas caracterizadas por tempos de permanência de 100 milhões de anos o mais, quando a força Yarkovsky é considerada, com baixa densidade de asteroides. Obtemos elementos próprios sintéticos para 10865 objetos na região da família de Euphrosyne e identificamos famílias e clumps no domínio dos elementos próprios e frequências. Com relação a outros trabalhos sobre identificação de famílias na área, aqui nos investigamos o efeito que a rede local de ressonâncias seculares tem sobre a evolução dinâmica das famílias e clumps. Identificamos por primeira vez, novas populações de objetos em estados ressoantes de libração anti-alinhada de ν6 e anti-alinhada e alinhada de ν5. / Abstract: Highly inclined asteroids are objects with sin(i) > 0.3. Among these asteroids we can distinguish between objects with inclinations lower than the center of the secular resonance ν6 = g−g6 and objects with higher inclinations. The current mechanisms of dynamical mobility cannot easily increase inclinations to value higher than that of the center of the ν6 resonance. The presence of high inclination objects may therefore be related to early stages of the Solar System. In this work we obtained synthetic proper elements for the region of the Pallas family, we found dynamical groups and determined the statistical significance of these groups. We studied the dynamic the dynamical evolution caused by planetary perturbations and non-gravitational effects of the families and clumps identified in the region of the Pallas and Hansa families (Carruba 2010b). We studied regions dynamically stable that on surprisingly characterized by a low number of asteroids, contrary to objects of lower inclinations that tend to occupy all the viable stable regions. We identified two areas characterized by permanence time of 100 Myr or more when the Yarkovsky force is considered, but with a small number density of bodies. We obtained synthetic proper elements for 10865 objects in the region of the Euphrosyne families and identify families and clumps in the domain of proper elements and frequencies. With respect to other work on family identification in the area, here we investigated the role that the local web of secular resonances has had on the dynamical evolution of families and clumps. We identify for the first time, new populations of objects inν6 anti-aligned libration and ν5 anti-aligned and aligned resonant states. / Mestre

Jupiter Trojan asteroid dynamics have been studied for a long time but it is only within the last decades that the known population has become large enough to make other studies meaningful. In four articles I have been scratching the surface of the unknown Trojan knowledge space. Paper I presents photometric observations confirming a larger variety in surface redness for the smaller Trojans compared to the larger ones, in line with the groups in the outer main asteroid belt. However, the largest Trojans are significantly redder compared to the largest Cybele and Hilda asteroids. Paper II is an investigation of the Trojan discovery completeness. The analysis shows that all Trojans down to a limiting absolute magnitude of H=11.5 mag have been discovered. Missing Trojans in the almost discovery-completed section should have inclinations above the mean of the same group. The faintest Trojans are discovery biased due to orbit orientations similar to the Milky Way. Paper III is a general review of dynamical and physical properties of the discovery-completed sample of Jupiter Trojans found in Paper II. The two Trojan swarms are often treated as being equal, but are different in a number of details. Two known facts are that the L5 swarm is less rich, while the L4 swarm has a larger fraction of low inclination Trojans. Trojans are in general red objects but the mean redness is higher for Trojans which have not collided compared to Trojans in families. Paper IIII is an investigation of Trojan collisions, family detection and evolution. Collision circumstances were mapped using numerical simulations and recorded Trojan close approaches. Synthetic families were created and evolved numerically. The result suggests that the HCM family detection technique can find Trojan families even in a densely populated parameter space. However, interlopers cannot be avoided at any level but their contribution should be less than 30%. Synthetic families can be identified with backwards orbital integrations for times up to a Gyr-scale. However, there are discrepancies between real Trojan families and my synthetic families.

No description available.

The planet crossing asteroids in the inner solar system have strongly chaotic orbits and the distributions of their angular elements (longitude of ascending node, Ω; argument of perihelion, ω; and longitude of perihelion, ϖ) are often regarded as uniform random. In the last decade, the known population of these minor planets has increased by more than a factor of four, providing a sufficiently large dataset for statistical analysis of their distribution. By choosing the observationally complete set of bright objects, we quantified the level of intrinsic non-uniformities of the angular elements for the following dynamical subgroups of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and Mars Crossing Objects (MCOs): three subgroups of NEOs (Atens, Apollos, and Amors) and two inclination subgroups of MCOs (high and low inclination MCOs, with the boundary at inclination of 15°). Using the methods of angular statistics, we found several statistically significant departures from uniform random angular distributions. We were able to link most of them with the effects of secular planetary perturbations. The distribution of the longitude of ascending node, Ω, for NEOs is slightly enhanced near the ascending node of Jupiter due to the secularly forced inclination vector. Apollos and high inclination MCOs have axial enhancement of ω due to secular dynamics associated with inclination-eccentricity-ω coupling; these enhancements show opposite trends in these two subgroups. The ϖ distributions of Amors and of MCOs are peaked towards the secularly forced eccentricity vector, close to the ϖ value of Jupiter. These non-uniform distributions of the angular elements may affect the asteroidal impact fluxes on the planets. We developed a new approach that accounts for the non-uniform angular elements of planet crossing asteroids to investigate the impact flux and its seasonal variation on the Earth, the Moon, and Mars. The calculation for this study was achieved by generating many clones of the observationally complete subset of bright planet-crossing objects, measuring the Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) between the planet and the clones, and making use of the classical formulation of Wetherill (1967) for the collision probability of two objects on independent Keplerian orbits. We developed a novel method to calculate the collision probability for near-tangential encounters; this resolves a singularity in the Wetherill formulation. The impact flux of NEOs on the Earth-Moon system is found to be not affected significantly by the non-uniform distribution of angular elements of NEOs. The impact flux on Mars, however, is found to be reduced by a factor of about 2 compared to the flux that would obtain from the assumption of uniform random distributions of the angular elements of MCOs. Moreover, the impact flux on Mars has a strong seasonal variation, with a peak when the planet is near aphelion. We found that the amplitude of this seasonal variation is a factor of 4-5 times smaller compared to what would be obtained with a uniform random distribution of the angular elements of MCOs. We calculate that the aphelion impact flux on Mars is about three times larger than its perihelion impact flux. We also calculate the current Mars/Moon impact flux ratio as 2.9-5.0 for kilometer size projectiles.

There are forty four known small planetary bodies with orbits that are contained within the heliocentric distances of Jupiter and Neptune. It is thought that the origin of these bodies is the Kuiper Belt, the predicted reservoir of the current short period comet population. Yet, only two bodies, Chiron and C/NEAT (2001 T4), have been shown to possess a visible coma. We've undertaken an observational survey of these bodies to obtain detailed characterization of the physical properties of the Centaurs to search for evidence of activity, and to use the physical characteristics to make inferences about primordial conditions in the outer solar nebula and evolutionary processes among different dynamical regimes in the outer nebula. We present the results of optical observations of 24 Centaurs, which yield a 3-σ correlation of color with semimajor axis, with redder Centaurs being farther from the Sun. The survey also revealed the rotation light curve period for 2 Centaurs, and the phase-darkening slope parameters, G, for 5 Centaurs which range from -0.18 to 0.13, agreeing with the steepest of main belt asteroid phase curve responses. We show spectral evidence of a variegated surface for 1999 UG5 and find the second reddest Centaur object is the active Centaur C/NEAT (2001 T4). We also present spectral evidence of crystalline water ice and ammonia species on our comparison object, the Uranian satellite Miranda.

Thesis (M.S. in Astronautical Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): I. Michael Ross. Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-58). Also available online.

This dissertation investigates the role of thermomechanical processes in the production of regolith on airless body surfaces. Thermally induced breakdown may provide a significant contribution to their surface evolution, by breaking down rocks and degrading craters. In Chapter 1, we use the traditional terrestrial methodology of evaluating the efficacy of this process by modeling the rate of surface temperature change (dT/dt) on various airless surfaces, using a damage threshold of 2 K/min. We find that the magnitude of dT/dt values is primarily controlled by sunrise/set durations on quickly rotating bodies, such as Vesta, and by distance to the sun on slowly rotating bodies, such as Mercury. The strongest rates of temperature change occur on slopes normal to the sun when a sunrise or sunset occurs, either naturally or because of daytime shadowing. We find, however, that high dT/dt values are not always correlated with high temperature gradients within the surface. This adds to the ambiguity of the poorly understood damage threshold, emphasizes the need further research on this topic that goes beyond the simple 2 K/min criterion. We further investigate this shortcoming in the terrestrial literature in Chapter two by modeling stresses induced by diurnal temperature variations at the mineral grain scale on these bodies. We find that the resulting stresses are controlled by mismatches in material properties between adjacent mineral grains. Peak stresses (on the order of 100s of MPa) are controlled by the coefficient of thermal expansion and Young's modulus of the mineral constituents, and the average stress within the microstructure is determined by relative volume of each mineral. Amplification of stresses occurs at surface-parallel boundaries between adjacent mineral grains and at the tips of pore spaces. We also find that microscopic spatial and temporal surface temperature gradients do not correlate with high stresses, making them inappropriate proxies for investigating microcrack propagation. Although these results provide strong evidence for the significance of thermomechanical processes, more work is needed to quantify crack propagation and rock breakdown rates in order to understand their overall contribution to surface evolution on these bodies. In Chapter 4, we investigate macroscopic scale effects on thermally induced stress fields in boulders of varying sizes and find that macroscopic thermal gradients may play a role in crack propagation within boulder interiors.

Since the discovery of Ceres, asteroids have been of immense scientific interest and intrigue. They hold answers to many of the fundamental questionsabout the formation and evolution of the Solar System. Therefore, a missionsurveying the asteroid belt with close encounter of carefully chosen asteroidswould be of immense scientific benefit. The trajectory of such an asteroidtour mission needs to be designed such that asteroids of a wide range ofcompositions and sizes are encountered; all with an extremely limited ∆Vbudget.This thesis presents a novel heuristic algorithm to optimize trajectoriesfor an asteroid tour mission with close range flybys (≤ 1000 km). The coresearch algorithm efficiently decouples combinatorial (i.e. choosing the asteroids to flyby)and continuous optimization (i.e. optimizing critical maneuversand events) of what is essentially a mixed integer programming problem.Additionally, different methods to generate a healthy initial population forthe combinatorial optimization are presented.The algorithm is used to generate a set of 1800 feasible trajectories withina 2029+ launch frame. A statistical analysis of these set of trajectories isperformed and important metrics for the search are set based on the statistics.Trajectories allowing flybys to prominent families of asteroids like Flora andNysa with ∆V as low as 4.99 km/s are obtained.Two modified implementations of the algorithm are presented. In a firstiteration, a large sample of trajectories is generated with a limited numberof encounters to the most scientifically interesting targets. While, a posteriori, trajectories are filled in with as many small targets as possible. Thisis achieved in two different ways, namely single step extension and multiplestep extension. The former fills in the trajectories with small targets in onestep, while the latter optimizes the trajectory by filling in with one asteroid per step. The thesis also presents detection of asteroids for successfullyperforming flybys. A photometric filter is developed which prunes out badlyilluminated asteroids. The best trajectory is found to perform well againstthis filter such that nine out of the ten planned flybys are feasible.