Skip to main content
All Reviews
Astronomy
intermediate

Deep operator neural network applied to efficient computation of asteroid surface temperature and the Yarkovsky effect

Zhao, Shunjing et al. (2024)

Published
Nov 4, 2024
Journal
arXiv (Cornell University)
DOI
10.48550/arXiv.2411.02653

At a GlanceAI

DeepONet predicts asteroid surface temperatures ~100,000× faster than simulations while preserving ~1% accuracy for Yarkovsky studies.

SummaryAI

Accurate asteroid surface temperatures are central to modeling thermal forces such as the Yarkovsky effect, but repeated high-fidelity simulations are often too slow for broad parameter studies. This work applies a deep operator neural network to learn asteroid thermophysical behavior, achieving about 1% average temperature error at five orders of magnitude lower computational cost. That speedup makes multidimensional thermal analyses much more practical and enables N-body orbital simulations that incorporate near-instantaneous, ML-based Yarkovsky estimates. The examples of Phaethon and 2001 WM41 illustrate how AI methods could accelerate studies of asteroid evolution and hazard-relevant dynamics.

Method SnapshotAI

The study uses a deep operator neural network surrogate model trained to emulate asteroid thermophysical simulations and embedded in N-body dynamics.

BackgroundAI

General background in asteroid thermophysics, orbital dynamics, and machine learning surrogate modeling is helpful.