Astronomy Tea Talks at Caltech

"The 'Light Revolution' - On the effect of light on the revolutions of asteroids"


The rotation of small-sized asteroids is evolved and controlled by the
sunlight - a thermal torque on a rotating, irregular, atmosphere-less
body - known as the YORP effect - has a short timescale of a few
millions of years and many implications on the asteroid's properties.
For example, while accelerating their spins due to YORP, asteroids can
cross the rubble pile spin barrier and disrupt. My talk presents some
observational studies and confirmations for this effect.