Formation of sharp edges and planar areas of asteroids by polyhedral abrasion

Abstract

While the number of asteroids with known shapes has drastically increased over the past few years, little is known on the time-evolution of shapes and the underlying physical processes. Here we propose an averaged abrasion model based on micro-collisions, accounting for asteroids not necessarily evolving toward regular spheroids, rather (depending on the fall-back rate of ejecta) following an alternative path, thus confirming photometry-derived features, e.g., existence of large, relatively flat areas separated by edges. We show that our model is realistic, since the bulk of the collisions falls into this category. © 2009. The American Astronomical Society.