The low surface thermal inertia of the rapidly rotating near-Earth asteroid 2016 GE1

Abstract

Asteroids smaller than about 100 meters are observed to rotate very fast, with periods often much shorter than the critical limit of 2.2 h. Some of these super-fast rotators can also achieve a very large semi-major axis drift induced by the Yarkovsky effect, that in turn, is determined by internal and surface physical properties. We consider the small super-fast rotating near-Earth asteroid 2016 GE1. This object rotates in just 34 seconds, and a large Yarkovsky effect has been determined from astrometry. Here we aim to constrain the thermal inertia of the surface of this extreme object. We used a recently developed statistical method to determine the thermal properties of near-Earth asteroids. The method is based on the comparison between the observed and the modelled Yarkovsky effect, and the thermal conductivity (inertia) is determined by a Monte Carlo approach. Parameters of the Yarkovsky effect model are either fixed if their uncertainty is negligible, modelled with a Gaussian distribution of the errors if they are measured, or deduced from general properties of the population of near-Earth asteroids when they are unknown. Using a well-established orbit determination procedure, we determined the Yarkovsky effect on 2016 GE1, and verified a significant semi-major axis drift rate. Using a statistical method, we showed that this semi-major axis drift rate could be explained only by low thermal inertia values below 100 J m$^{-2}$ K$^{-1}$ s$^{-1/2}$: namely, 90\% of the probability density function of the model outcomes is contained at values smaller than 100 J m$^{-2}$ K$^{-1}$ s$^{-1/2}$. We propose two possible interpretations for the extremely low values: a high porosity or a cracked surface, or a thin layer of fine regolith on the surface. Though this seems unexpected in either case, it opens up the possibility of a subclass of low thermal inertia, super-fast rotating asteroids.