The apparent magnitude of elongated small bodies is time-dependent over their rotation phase. Therefore, previously undiscovered aspherical minor planets may experience a shape-driven selection effect in systematic surveys versus their spherical counterparts. In this study, we conduct injection-recovery exercises of synthetic asteroid lightcurves using a simple model to quantify the effect of varying axial ratio on detection efficiencies. We find that high-amplitude lightcurves are confronted with adverse selection effects for survey cadences and discovery thresholds for constructing tracklets that are representative of modern and proposed future NEO searches. Furthermore, we illustrate the possible hazards of drawing population-level inferences on an underlying reservoir of elongated small bodies. If physical size and characteristic axial ratios are correlated, then size-frequency distributions may require revision at small diameters. In particular, this effect could alter the estimated populations of near-Earth objects. We conclude by discussing the applicability of our results to various other classes of solar system minor planets and interstellar interlopers, as well as discuss future work that may further interrogate this detection bias.
University of the Azores（亚速尔大学）；Centro de Física da Universidade de Coimbra, Departamento de Física, Universidade de Coimbra（科英布拉大学物理中心物理系）；Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)（圣保罗州立大学地球科学与精确科学研究所）；National Institute for Space Research（国家空间研究院）；Polytechnic School, University of Pernambuco（伯南布哥大学理工学院）
Upcoming NASA astrophysics missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope will search for signs of life on planets transiting nearby stars. Doing so will require co-adding dozens of transmission spectra to build up sufficient signal to noise while simultaneously accounting for challenging systematic effects such as surface/weather variability, atmospheric refraction, and stellar activity. To determine the magnitude and impacts of both stellar and planet variability on measured transmission spectra, we must assess the feasibility of stacking multiple transmission spectra of exo-Earths around t…
Earth-sized planets were observed in close-in orbits around M dwarfs. While more and more planets are expected to be uncovered around M dwarfs, theories of their formation and dynamical evolution are still in their infancy. We investigate the giant impact growth of protoplanets, which includes strong scattering around low-mass stars. The aim is to clarify whether strong scattering around low-mass stars affects the orbital and mass distributions of the planets. We perform $N$-body simulation of protoplanets by systematically surveying the parameter space of the stellar mass and surface density …
The dynamical structure of the Earth co-orbital region and implications for the near-Earth asteroid population
ESA ESRIN（欧洲空间局地球观测中心）；Deimos Italia s.r.l.（德伊莫斯意大利有限公司）；Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya（加泰罗尼亚理工大学）；Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université de Lille, LNE, CNRS（巴黎天文台、PSL大学、索邦大学、里尔大学、法国国家科学研究中心）
