Secular change in the spin states of asteroids due to radiation and gravitation torques

Abstract

The rotation state of small asteroids is affected in the long term by perturbing torques of gravitational and radiative origin (the YORP effect). The former can be detected by a change in the spin-axis orientation in the inertial space; the latter manifests itself by a quadratic increase in the rotation phase. Direct observational evidence of the YORP effect is the primary goal of our work. This includes both the YORP detection for new objects and an improvement in the accuracy of previously known detections. We carried out photometric observations of five near-Earth asteroids: (1862) Apollo, (2100) Ra-Shalom, (85989) 1999 JD6, (138852) 2000 WN10, and (161989) Cacus. Then we applied the light-curve inversion method to all available data to determine the spin state and a convex shape model for each of the five studied asteroids. The YORP effect was modeled as a linear change of the rotation frequency $ In the case of (2100) Ra-Shalom, the analysis required that the spin-axis precession due to the solar gravitational torque also be included. We obtained two new detections of the YORP effect: (i) $ for (2100) Ra-Shalom, and (ii) $ for (138852) 2000 WN10. The analysis of Ra-Shalom also reveals a precession of the spin axis with a precession constant $ $. This is the first such detection from Earth-bound photometric data. For the other two asteroids, we improved the accuracy of the previously reported YORP detection: (i) $ for (1862) Apollo, and (ii) $ for (161989) Cacus. With this value, Apollo has the most precisely determined YORP effect so far. Despite the recent report of a detected YORP effect for (85989) 1999 JD6, we show that the model without YORP cannot be rejected statistically. Therefore, the detection of the YORP effect for this asteroid requires future observations. In several of our targets the currently available observations do not provide enough constraints on the shape model (even at large scales) to compute the theoretical YORP effect with sufficient precision. Nevertheless, the interpretation of the detected signal as the YORP effect is fairly plausible. The spin-axis precession constant of Ra-Shalom determined from observations matches the theoretically expected value. The total number of asteroids with a YORP detection has increased to 12. In all cases, the rotation frequency increases in time. The analysis of a rich photometric data set of irregularly shaped asteroids may require inclusion of spin-axis precession in future studies.