2001 SN263 – the contribution of their irregular shapes on the neighbourhood dynamics

Abstract

ABSTRACT The first proposed Brazilian mission to deep space, the ASTER mission, has the triple asteroid system (153591) 2001 SN263 as a target. One of the mission’s main goals is to analyse the physical and dynamical structures of the system to understand its origin and evolution. This work aims to analyse how the asteroid’s irregular shape interferes with the stability around the system. The results show that the irregular shape of the bodies plays an important role in the dynamics nearby the system. For instance, the perturbation due to the (153591) 2001 SN263 Alpha’s shape affects the stability in the (153591) 2001 SN263 Gamma’s vicinity. Similarly, the (153591) 2001 SN263 Beta’s irregularity causes a significant instability in its nearby environment. As expected, the prograde case is the most unstable, while the retrograde scenario presents more stability. Additionally, we investigate how the solar radiation pressure perturbs particles of different sizes orbiting the triple system. We found that particles with a 10–50 cm radius could survive the radiation pressure for the retrograde case. Meanwhile, to resist solar radiation, the particles in prograde orbit must be larger than the particles in retrograde orbits, at least one order of magnitude.