Formes dʹastéroïdes et formation de satellites : rôle de la réaccumulation gravitationnelle

Following current evidence, it is widely accepted that many asteroids would be ‘gravitational aggregates’, i.e. bodies lacking internal cohesion. They could mainly originate from the catastrophic disruption of some parent body, through the gravitational re-accumulation of the resulting fragments. The same events produced the dynamical families that we observe. In this work we address the problem of the origin of shapes of gravitational aggregates, that could contain signatures of their origin. We use a N-body code to simulate the collapse of a cloud of fragments, with a variety of initial velocity distributions and total angular momentum. The fragments are treated as inelastic spheres, that rapidly accumulate to form rotating aggregates. The resulting shapes and rotational properties are compared with theoretical predictions. The results show that only a precise category of shapes (flattened spheroids) are created via this mechanism. This may provide interesting constraints on the evolution of asteroid shapes, in particular for those with one or more satellites. To cite this article: J.-F. Consigli et al., C. R. Physique 8 (2007).