Gravitational Potential of Asteroids of Diverse Shapes

Abstract

Asteroid research is of global security interest, we are more afraid about any impact of these asteroids on Earth. We seek through this work to provide a study on the effect of the asteroid’s shape on the gravity aspect. Knowledge of the potential is crucial to bodies approaching the asteroid. There is a range of asteroid shapes to consider. Some well-known asteroids such Ceres, Vesta, Iris and Oumuamua are considered in this study. After determining the moment of inertia of the asteroids depending on their materials, the gravity fields and the potential gravity of the asteroids are established when varying their shapes. A representation of the gravity field is given in three dimensional coordinate systems. Also, the behavior of the potential gravity is drawing in the function of the object’s location. The second part is dealing with the interpretation of all the obtained results in order to deduce some rules and features which would be useful for the identification of the asteroids. Thus, by the best knowledge of the effect of the asteroid’s shape, we would be more informed in the survey of the hazardous near earth objects.