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Mercury and orbfit packages for numerical integration of planetary systems: implementation of the yarkovsky and yorp effects

Marco Fenucci, Bojan Novaković

2022Serbian Astronomical Journal22 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

For studies of the long-term evolution of small Solar System objects, it is fundamental to add the Yarkovsky and Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effects in the dynamical model. Still, implementations of these effects in publicly available N-body codes is either lacking, or the effects are implemented using significantly simplified models. In this paper, we present an implementation of the coupled Yarkovsky/YORP effects in the mercury and orbfit N-body codes. Along with these two effects, we also included the effects of non-destructive collisions and rotationally induced breakups to model the asteroid spin state properly. Given the stochastic nature of many incorporated effects, the software is suitable for statistical dynamical studies. Here we primarily explained the scientific aspect of the implementation, while technical details will be made freely available along with the source codes.

Topics & Concepts

PhysicsMercury (programming language)AstrobiologyAsteroidPlanetary systemCelestial mechanicsAstronomyAstrophysicsClassical mechanicsPlanetProgramming languageComputer scienceAstro and Planetary SciencePlanetary Science and ExplorationStellar, planetary, and galactic studies
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