combsbt
Jedi Master
_http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/meteorites-0813.html
[quote author=article]
The Yarkovsky effect causes asteroids to change their orbits as a result of the way they absorb the sun's heat on one side and radiate it back later as they rotate around. This causes a slight imbalance that slowly, over time, alters the object's path. But the key thing is this: The effect acts much more strongly on the smallest objects, and only weakly on the larger ones.
"We think the Yarkovsky effect is so efficient for meter-size objects that it can operate on all regions of the asteroid belt," not just its inner edge, Binzel says.
Thus, for chunks of rock from boulder-size on down -- the kinds of things that end up as typical meteorites -- the Yarkovsky effect plays a major role, moving them with ease from throughout the asteroid belt on to paths that can head toward Earth. For larger asteroids a kilometer or so across, the kind that we worry about as potential threats to the Earth, the effect is so weak it can only move them small amounts.
[/quote]
So it only works on small ones?
[quote author=article]
With an initial nudge from the Yarkovsky effect, kilometer-sized asteroids from the Flora region can find themselves "over the edge" of the asteroid belt and sent on a path to Earth's vicinity through the perturbing effects of the planets called resonances.
[/quote]
Wait, didn't you just say that the larger ones weren't effected enough?
[quote author=article]
The new study is also good news for protecting the planet. One of the biggest problems in figuring out how to deal with an approaching asteroid, if and when one is discovered on a potential collision course, is that they are so varied. The best way of dealing with one kind might not work on another.
[/quote]
So we can just shine some light on them and let the Yarkovsky effect send them away. Perhaps something else is the culprit for these asteroids coming our way?
[quote author=article]
The Yarkovsky effect causes asteroids to change their orbits as a result of the way they absorb the sun's heat on one side and radiate it back later as they rotate around. This causes a slight imbalance that slowly, over time, alters the object's path. But the key thing is this: The effect acts much more strongly on the smallest objects, and only weakly on the larger ones.
"We think the Yarkovsky effect is so efficient for meter-size objects that it can operate on all regions of the asteroid belt," not just its inner edge, Binzel says.
Thus, for chunks of rock from boulder-size on down -- the kinds of things that end up as typical meteorites -- the Yarkovsky effect plays a major role, moving them with ease from throughout the asteroid belt on to paths that can head toward Earth. For larger asteroids a kilometer or so across, the kind that we worry about as potential threats to the Earth, the effect is so weak it can only move them small amounts.
[/quote]
So it only works on small ones?
[quote author=article]
With an initial nudge from the Yarkovsky effect, kilometer-sized asteroids from the Flora region can find themselves "over the edge" of the asteroid belt and sent on a path to Earth's vicinity through the perturbing effects of the planets called resonances.
[/quote]
Wait, didn't you just say that the larger ones weren't effected enough?
[quote author=article]
The new study is also good news for protecting the planet. One of the biggest problems in figuring out how to deal with an approaching asteroid, if and when one is discovered on a potential collision course, is that they are so varied. The best way of dealing with one kind might not work on another.
[/quote]
So we can just shine some light on them and let the Yarkovsky effect send them away. Perhaps something else is the culprit for these asteroids coming our way?
