A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODEL OF TANGENTIAL YORP

Tangential YORP, or TYORP, has recently been demonstrated to be an important factor in the evolution of an asteroid's rotation state. It is complementary to normal YORP, or NYORP, which used to be considered previously. While NYORP is produced by non-symmetry in the large-scale geometry of an asteroid, TYORP is due to heat conductivity in stones on the surface of the asteroid. To date, TYORP has been studied only in a simplified one-dimensional model, substituting stones with high long walls. This article for the first time considers TYORP in a realistic three-dimensional model, also including shadowing and self-illumination effects via ray tracing. TYORP is simulated for spherical stones lying on regolith. The model includes only five free parameters and the dependence of the TYORP on each of them is studied. The TYORP torque appears to be smaller than previous estimates from the one-dimensional model, but is still comparable to the NYORP torques. These results can be used to estimate TYORP of different asteroids and also as a basis for more sophisticated models of TYORP.

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