Recent studies have confirmed that the continuous bombardment of billions of tiny particles from the Sun can affect the spin of an asteroid.
The effect is not that great if you check it out on annual basis but once you see that the process has been constant since the time the Solar System was born then it might look huge.
As fine solar shower rains on asteroids it can alter the spin of these asteroids. The effect was known for years but it had never been seen.
New studies on two asteroids have revealed the process.
The effect is named Yorp effect and it describes the torque created when light particles hit the surface of an object causing it to heat up.
This heat is re-emitted and it exerts a gentle recoil effect on the asteroid. This recoil changes the spin by a very small factor. But considering that the age of the asteroids is in billions of years we can say that the effect would have drastically changed the spin of the asteroid in the years.
Asteroids have monitored the spin of two asteroids named 2000 PH5 and 1862 Apollo.
When researching around 2000 PH5, which makes regular near-Earth passes. The 114m-diameter lump was the closest to Earth when it came within 1.8 million km from it.
As the asteroid rotates, its brightness increases and decreases, which is directly proportional to how fast is it spinning.
By combining the findings which researchers gathered in four years, they came to the conclusion that the increase in the spun makes it rotate faster at the rate of one millisecond per year.
Another observed asteroid is 1862 Apollo. The asteroid is 1.4km wide and the increase in the spin has caused a change of only four thousandth of a second per year in the rotation time.
The researchers also stated that these asteroids are the leftovers from the start of the Solar System and by understanding these asteroids they may get a clue of what the Solar System was like before the planets formed.
Via: BBC
