학술논문

Episodes of particle ejection from the surface of the active asteroid (101955) Bennu.
Document Type
Article
Source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2/23/2021, Vol. 118 Issue 8, p1-10. 10p.
Subject
*ASTEROIDS
*STRESS fractures (Orthopedics)
*THERMAL stresses
*METEOROIDS
Language
ISSN
0027-8424
Abstract
Active asteroids are those that show evidence of ongoing mass loss. We report repeated instances of particle ejection from the surface of (101955) Bennu, demonstrating that it is an active asteroid. The ejection events were imaged by the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft. For the three largest observed events, we estimated the ejected particle velocities and sizes, event times, source regions, and energies. We also determined the trajectories and photometric properties of several gravitationally bound particles that orbited temporarily in the Bennu environment. We consider multiple hypotheses for the mechanisms that lead to particle ejection for the largest events, including rotational disruption, electrostatic lofting, ice sublimation, phyllosilicate dehydration, meteoroid impacts, thermal stress fracturing, and secondary impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]