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      Scaling forces to asteroid surfaces: The role of cohesion

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          Abstract

          The scaling of physical forces to the extremely low ambient gravitational acceleration regimes found on the surfaces of small asteroids is performed. Resulting from this, it is found that van der Waals cohesive forces between regolith grains on asteroid surfaces should be a dominant force and compete with particle weights and be greater, in general, than electrostatic and solar radiation pressure forces. Based on this scaling, we interpret previous experiments performed on cohesive powders in the terrestrial environment as being relevant for the understanding of processes on asteroid surfaces. The implications of these terrestrial experiments for interpreting observations of asteroid surfaces and macro-porosity are considered, and yield interpretations that differ from previously assumed processes for these environments. Based on this understanding, we propose a new model for the end state of small, rapidly rotating asteroids which allows them to be comprised of relatively fine regolith grains held together by van der Waals cohesive forces.

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          Adhesion and Friction Forces between Spherical Micrometer-Sized Particles

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            Regolith Migration and Sorting on Asteroid Itokawa

            High-resolution images of the surface of asteroid Itokawa from the Hayabusa mission reveal it to be covered with unconsolidated millimeter-sized and larger gravels. Locations and morphologic characteristics of this gravel indicate that Itokawa has experienced considerable vibrations, which have triggered global-scale granular processes in its dry, vacuum, microgravity environment. These processes likely include granular convection, landslide-like granular migrations, and particle sorting, resulting in the segregation of the fine gravels into areas of potential lows. Granular processes become major resurfacing processes because of Itokawa's small size, implying that they can occur on other small asteroids should those have regolith.
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              Radar Imaging of Binary Near-Earth Asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                12 February 2010
                Article
                10.1016/j.icarus.2010.07.009
                1002.2478
                809a7a35-bcae-4022-8b00-9e522ea6a0da

                http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

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                Custom metadata
                54 pages, 7 figures
                astro-ph.EP

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