Sunlight sends asteroids spinning
Sunlight can cause asteroids to spin more quickly, scientists say, showing just how dynamic our solar system can be.
International teams of scientists studying two asteroids, one about 1.5 kilometres wide and the other about 114 metres wide, confirm a previously unproven theory that sunlight can affect asteroid rotation.
Dr Stephen Lowry of Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland says the findings boost the understanding of the physical properties and dynamics of asteroids, hunks of metal and rock rattling around in space.
“This is important as asteroids are leftovers from the formation of the solar system, along with comets, and so by studying them we gain insights into what the solar system was like some 4.5 billion years ago,” he says.
In research appearing in the journals Nature and Science, the scientists focused on the so-called YORP effect, named after four scientists (Yarkovsky-O’Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack) who inspired the theory.
The idea is the Sun’s heat serves as a propulsion engine on the irregular features of an asteroid’s surface.