What's the best way to land on a spinning asteroid? Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: What's the best way to land on a spinning asteroid?
# 10574 bydondanthony@... on April 12, 2008, 5:12 p.m.
Member since 2021-10-03
RUBBLE PILES FULL OF WEALTH.
--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Lucio de Souza Coelho" wrote:> I suspect that there are very few asteroids of the thousands and > thousands of known ones that rotate faster than what its gravity can> hold.For the larger ones, wikipedia agrees:"Measurements of the rotation periods of large asteroids in the main belt show that there is a lower limit. No asteroid with a diameter larger than 100 metres has a period of rotation of less than 2.2 hours. For asteroids rotating faster than approximately this rate, the centrifugal force at the surface is greater than the gravitational force, so any loose surface material would be flung out. However, a solid object should be able to rotate much more rapidly. This suggests that the majority of asteroids with a diameter over 100 metres are actually rubble piles formed through accumulation of debris after collisions between asteroids."