The Yarkovsky and YORP Effects
Vokrouhlicky, D. et al. (2015)
- Published
- Feb 4, 2015
- DOI
- 10.48550/arXiv.1502.01249
At a GlanceAI
Review of how sunlight-driven thermal recoil reshapes asteroid orbits and spins, enabling detections and population-scale dynamical inferences.
SummaryAI
This review synthesizes how Yarkovsky drift and YORP/BYORP torques act as slow but decisive drivers of small-body dynamics, linking surface thermophysics to long-term orbital and spin evolution. It emphasizes the modern, detection-era view: precise astrometry and lightcurves now measure these effects directly, making them essential for impact risk forecasts, density/thermal-inertia inference, and reconstructing asteroid-family histories. A key dynamic insight is that YORP/BYORP evolution is often not smoothly deterministic because small-scale topography, self-heating/roughness, and shape changes can randomize or self-limit torque cycles. The paper frames future progress around improved nonlinear thermophysical modeling (roughness, 3D conduction, tumbling) and expanding observational tests—especially for BYORP and for whether YORP spin-up vs spin-down is intrinsically asymmetric.
Method SnapshotAI
Literature review combining analytical scaling laws, modern thermophysical/YORP modeling developments, and observational case studies of direct detections and dynamical applications.
BackgroundAI
Background in celestial mechanics and basic heat transfer/thermophysics as applied to asteroid orbit and spin evolution.
My personal note
— ES