The surface sensitivity of rubble-pile asteroids during a distant planetary encounter: Influence of asteroid shape elongation

Abstract

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. We numerically investigate how an asteroid's elongation controls the sensitivity of its surface to tidal effects during a distant planetary encounter beyond the Roche limit. We analyze the surface slope and its variation by considering the shape elongation, as well as the spin period and orbital conditions. A more elongated asteroid tends to have a higher slope variation, while there may not be a monotonic increase of the total area having such a variation.