View source for Yarkovsky effect

{{Short description|Force acting on a rotating body in space}}
{{distinguish|Yarkovsky–O'Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack effect}}
[[Image:YarkovskyEffect.svg|thumb|upright=1.15|'''Yarkovsky effect:'''{{ordered list|Radiation from asteroid's surface|Prograde rotating asteroid{{unbulleted list|2.1. Location with "Afternoon"}}|Asteroid's orbit|Radiation from Sun}}]]
The '''Yarkovsky effect''' is a [[Force (physics)|force]] acting on a rotating body in space caused by the [[anisotropic]] emission of [[heat|thermal]] [[photon]]s, which carry [[momentum]]. It is usually considered in relation to [[meteoroid]]s or small [[asteroid]]s (about 10&nbsp;cm to 10&nbsp;km in diameter), as its influence is most significant for these bodies.

==History of discovery==
The effect was discovered by the Polish-Russian<ref>{{cite journal |first=George |last=Beekman |title=The nearly forgotten scientist John Osipovich Yarkovsky |journal=Journal of the British Astronomical Association |volume=115 |issue=4 |pages=207 |year=2005 |bibcode=2005JBAA..115..207B |url=http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/2005JBAA..115..207B |format=PDF |access-date=2021-08-12 |archive-date=2021-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812010109/http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/2005JBAA..115..207B |url-status=live }}</ref> civil engineer [[Ivan Osipovich Yarkovsky]] (1844&ndash;1902), who worked in Russia on scientific problems in his spare time. Writing in a pamphlet around the year 1900, Yarkovsky noted that the daily heating of a rotating object in space would cause it to experience a force that, while tiny, could lead to large long-term effects in the orbits of small bodies, especially [[meteoroid]]s and small [[asteroid]]s. Yarkovsky's insight would have been forgotten had it not been for the [[Estonia]]n astronomer [[Ernst J. Öpik]] (1893&ndash;1985), who read Yarkovsky's pamphlet sometime around 1909. Decades later, Öpik, recalling the pamphlet from memory, discussed the possible importance of the Yarkovsky effect on movement of meteoroids about the [[Solar System]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=E. J. |last=Öpik |title=Collision probabilities with the planets and the distribution of interplanetary matter |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy |volume=54A |pages=165–199 |year=1951 |jstor=20488532 |bibcode=1951PRIA...54..165O }}</ref>

==Mechanism==
The Yarkovsky effect is a consequence of the fact that change in the temperature of an object warmed by radiation (and therefore the intensity of thermal radiation from the object) lags behind changes in the incoming radiation. That is, the surface of the object takes time to become warm when first illuminated, and takes time to cool down when illumination stops. In general there are two components to the effect:

* '''Diurnal''' effect: On a rotating body illuminated by the Sun (e.g. an asteroid or the Earth), the surface is warmed by solar radiation during the day, and cools at night. The thermal properties of the surface cause a lag between the absorption of radiation from the Sun and the emission of radiation as heat, so the surface is warmest not when the Sun is at its peak but slightly later. This results in a difference between the directions of absorption and re-emission of radiation, which yields a net force along the direction of motion of the orbit. If the object is a [[direct motion|prograde]] rotator, then the force is in the direction of motion of the orbit, and causes the [[semi-major axis]] of the orbit to increase steadily: the object spirals away from the Sun. A [[retrograde motion|retrograde]] rotator spirals inward. The diurnal effect is the dominant component for bodies with diameter greater than about 100 m.<ref name=Bottke06review>{{cite journal |last=Bottke, Jr. |first=William F. |url=https://astro.troja.mff.cuni.cz/davok/papers/ann_rev_06.pdf |title=The Yarkovsky and YORP Effects: Implications for Asteroid Dynamics |journal=[[Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences|Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci.]] |volume=34 |pages=157–191 |year=2006 |doi=10.1146/annurev.earth.34.031405.125154 |bibcode=2006AREPS..34..157B |s2cid=11115100 |display-authors=etal |access-date=2021-08-12 |archive-date=2021-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812022037/https://astro.troja.mff.cuni.cz/davok/papers/ann_rev_06.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
* '''Seasonal''' effect: This is easiest to understand for the idealised case of a non-rotating body orbiting the Sun, for which each "year" consists of exactly one "day". As it travels around its orbit, the "dusk" hemisphere which has been heated over a long preceding time period is invariably in the direction of orbital motion. The excess of thermal radiation in this direction causes a braking force that always causes spiraling inward toward the Sun. In practice, for rotating bodies, this seasonal effect increases along with the [[axial tilt]]. It dominates only if the diurnal effect is small enough. This may occur because of very rapid rotation (no time to cool off on the night side, hence an almost-uniform [[longitude|longitudinal]] temperature distribution), small size (the whole body is heated throughout), or an axial tilt close to 90°. The seasonal effect is more important for smaller asteroid fragments (from a few metres up to about 100 m), provided their surfaces are not covered by an insulating [[regolith]] layer and they do not have exceedingly slow rotations. Additionally, on very long timescales over which the spin axis of the body may be repeatedly changed by collisions (and hence also the direction of the diurnal effect changes), the seasonal effect will also tend to dominate.<ref name=Bottke06review />

In general, the effect is size-dependent, and will affect the semi-major axis of smaller asteroids, while leaving large asteroids practically unaffected. For kilometre-sized asteroids, the Yarkovsky effect is minuscule over short periods: the force on asteroid [[6489 Golevka]] has been estimated at 0.25 [[newton (unit)|newtons]], for a net acceleration of 10<sup>&minus;12</sup>&nbsp;m/s<sup>2</sup>. But it is steady; over millions of years an asteroid's orbit can be perturbed enough to transport it from the [[asteroid belt]] to the inner Solar System.

The mechanism is more complicated for bodies in strongly [[eccentricity (orbit)|eccentric]] orbits.

==Measurement==
The effect was first measured in 1991–2003 on the asteroid [[6489 Golevka]]. The asteroid drifted 15&nbsp;km from its predicted position over twelve years (the orbit was established with great precision by a series of radar observations in 1991, 1995, and 1999 from the [[Arecibo Observatory|Arecibo radio telescope]]).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Chesley |first=Steven R. |url=https://www.aldebaran.cz/bulletin/2004_15/golevka_science.pdf |title=Direct Detection of the Yarkovsky Effect via Radar Ranging to Asteroid 6489 Golevka |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=302 |issue=5651 |pages=1739–1742 |year=2003 |doi=10.1126/science.1091452 |pmid=14657492 |bibcode=2003Sci...302.1739C |s2cid=21091302 |display-authors=etal |access-date=2021-08-12 |archive-date=2021-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812022035/https://www.aldebaran.cz/bulletin/2004_15/golevka_science.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Without direct measurement, it is very hard to predict the exact result of the Yarkovsky effect on a given asteroid's orbit. This is because the magnitude of the effect depends on many variables that are hard to determine from the limited observational information that is available. These include the exact shape of the asteroid, its orientation, and its [[albedo]]. Calculations are further complicated by the effects of shadowing and thermal "reillumination", whether caused by local craters or a possible overall concave shape. The Yarkovsky effect also competes with [[radiation pressure]], whose net effect may cause similar small long-term forces for bodies with albedo variations or non-spherical shapes.

As an example, even for the simple case of the pure seasonal Yarkovsky effect on a spherical body in a circular orbit with 90° [[obliquity]], semi-major axis changes could differ by as much as a factor of two between the case of a uniform albedo and the case of a strong north-south albedo asymmetry. Depending on the object's orbit and [[Rotation|spin axis]], the Yarkovsky change of the semi-major axis may be reversed simply by changing from a spherical to a non-spherical shape.

Despite these difficulties, using the Yarkovsky effect is one scenario under investigation to alter the course of potentially Earth-impacting [[near-Earth object|near-Earth asteroid]]s. Possible [[asteroid deflection strategies]] include "painting" the surface of the asteroid or focusing solar radiation onto the asteroid to alter the intensity of the Yarkovsky effect and so alter the orbit of the asteroid away from a collision with Earth.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Randall |first1=Keith |title=Asteroids No Match For Paint Gun, Says Prof |url=http://tamutimes.tamu.edu/2013/02/21/asteroids-no-match-for-paint-gun-says-prof/ |access-date=12 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130302134556/http://tamutimes.tamu.edu:80/2013/02/21/asteroids-no-match-for-paint-gun-says-prof/ |archive-date=2 March 2013 |date=21 February 2013 |url-status=dead }} [https://today.tamu.edu/2013/02/21/asteroids-no-match-for-paint-gun-says-prof/ Alternate link, with video] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812022037/https://today.tamu.edu/2013/02/21/asteroids-no-match-for-paint-gun-says-prof/ |date=2021-08-12 }}</ref> The [[OSIRIS-REx]] mission, launched in September 2016, studied the Yarkovsky effect on [[101955 Bennu|asteroid Bennu]].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.asteroidmission.org/qa/| title = OSIRIS-REx - Q & A| access-date = 2021-08-12| archive-date = 2021-08-12| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210812022036/https://www.asteroidmission.org/qa/| url-status = live}}</ref>

In 2020, astronomers confirmed Yarkovsky acceleration of the asteroid [[99942 Apophis]]. The findings are relevant to [[asteroid impact avoidance]] as 99942 Apophis was thought to have a very small chance of Earth impact in 2068, and the Yarkovsky effect was a significant source of prediction uncertainty.<ref>{{cite news |title=Infamous asteroid Apophis is accelerating {{!}} EarthSky.org |url=https://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-99942-apophis-encounters-2029-2036-2068 |access-date=10 November 2020 |work=earthsky.org |archive-date=2 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502132009/https://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-99942-apophis-encounters-2029-2036-2068 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tholen |first1=D. |last2=Farnocchia |first2=D. |title=Detection of Yarkovsky Acceleration of (99942) Apophis |journal=AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts |date=1 October 2020 |volume=52 |issue=6 |pages=214.06 |bibcode=2020DPS....5221406T |url=https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/David_Tholen_DPS52.pdf |access-date=12 August 2021 |archive-date=12 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812015900/https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/David_Tholen_DPS52.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2021, a multidisciplinary professional-amateur collaboration combined [[Gaia satellite]] and ground-based radar measurements with amateur stellar [[occultation]] observations to further refine 99942 Apophis's orbit and measure the Yarkovsky acceleration with high precision, to within 0.5%. With these data, astronomers were able to eliminate the possibility of a collision with the Earth for at least the next 100 years.<ref>{{cite web |title=Apophis' Yarkovsky Acceleration Improved Through Stellar Occultation |url=https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/iow_20210329/ |website=www.cosmos.esa.int |access-date=12 August 2021 |date=26 March 2021 |archive-date=12 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812140459/https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/iow_20210329/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==

* [[Asteroid]]
* [[Poynting–Robertson effect]]
* [[Radiation pressure]]
* [[Yarkovsky–O'Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack effect|YORP effect]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{cite journal |arxiv=1204.5990|doi=10.1088/0004-6256/144/2/60|url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-6256/144/2/60/pdf|format=PDF|title=Detection of Semimajor Axis Drifts in 54 Near-Earth Asteroids: New Measurements of the Yarkovsky Effect|year=2012|last1=Nugent|first1=C. R.|last2=Margot|first2=J. L.|last3=Chesley|first3=S. R.|last4=Vokrouhlický|first4=D.|journal=The Astronomical Journal|volume=144|issue=2|page=60|bibcode=2012AJ....144...60N|s2cid=26376355}}
* [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120524215341.htm Asteroid Nudged by Sunlight: Most Precise Measurement of Yarkovsky Effect] – ([[ScienceDaily]] 2012-05-24)

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[[Category:Asteroids]]
[[Category:Concepts in astrophysics]]
[[Category:Orbital perturbations]]
[[Category:Radiation effects]]
[[Category:Rotation]]