Where have all the Vulcanoids gone?

Dec 18 2020

This answer to Does anything orbit the Sun faster than Mercury? explains that while Vulcanoid asteroids may have been plentiful in the past, large ones have currently been ruled out though smaller ones less than about 6 km might still be there. It's difficult to observe them because from Earth it requires pointing close to the Sun, and from spacecraft that are much closer (i.e. Mercury and lower) it's really hot and difficult to do.

I think that the current limits are set by analysis of historical STEREO images, space telescopes in orbit at 1 AU designed to look at and around the Sun. A Search for Vulcanoids with the STEREO Heliospheric Imager

私の理解では、太陽系の形成中、物が形成されて衝突したときに小惑星がいたるところにありましたが、一部の物体が大きくなると、大きな帯がきれいに掃引され、一部のバンドが残りました。

バルカン帯に大きな小惑星が枯渇しているように見える理由を説明する理論はありますか?このバンドは非常に安定していますが、単に十分に安定していませんか?そもそもなぜか大きな小惑星が住んでいないと思う人もいますか?

質問:すべてのバルカノイドはどこに行ったのですか?(どこへ行った?

回答

6 Noname Dec 19 2020 at 01:11

太陽放射の影響は、そもそもそこにあったもののバルカン群領域を一掃するための主な容疑者です。放射圧は、その領域から小さなほこりを吹き飛ばす傾向があります。大きなオブジェクトは、ヤルコフスキー効果とYORP効果のためにクリアされる傾向があります。

Yarkovsky効果は、回転体と加熱、彼らはにおよび日光の出入りとして冷却する物体の表面の領域のためのタイムラグを横切る温度変化の結果として生じます。これは、(運動量を運ぶ)放射された光子の分布に影響を及ぼし、時間の経過とともに小惑星の軌道をシフトするように作用します。Vokrouhlickýetal。(2000)この効果が数十億年のタイムスケールでバルカン群領域からキロメートルサイズの物体を取り除くであろうと推定します。

A further effect that is relevant is the YORP effect (short for Yarkovsky, O'Keefe, Radzievskii and Paddack, see also the question What is the difference between the Yarkovsky effect and YORP effect?). This affects the rotation of irregular objects like asteroids and can result in them spinning up to the point where they break apart. This is thought to be a significant contributor to the population of binary asteroids. In the vulcanoid region, this would be a mechanism for breaking up larger asteroids into fragments small enough for the Yarkovsky effect to rapidly clear them out of the vulcanoid region: Collins (2020) puts this right in the title: "The YORP Effect Can Efficiently Destroy 100 Kilometer Planetesimals At The Inner Edge Of The Solar System".

... The YORP effect destroys Vulcanoids by spinning them up so fast that the gravitational accelerations holding components of the body together are matched by centrifugal accelerations, this causes the body to rotationally fission. i.e break apart. We calculated the timescale of this fission process for a parent Vulcanoid and for each of their subsequent generational fragments. We show that objects with radii up to 100 kilometers in size are efficiently destroyed by the YORP effect doing so in a timescale that is much younger than the age of the Solar System...