A Review for the Thermophysics and the Yarkovsky and YORP Effects of Asteroidstwo

Abstract

The thermophysics of asteroids has become an important frontier for the research of asteroids in recent years. In this paper, we have introduced the thermophysical models commonly used in this field, by using these thermophysical models and combining with the data observed by the space or ground-based IR telescopes, some thermophysical parameters of asteroids, such as the thermal inertia, geometric albedo, effective diameter, surface roughness, and surface temperature, etc., can be derived. We have mentioned also the shape model and IR observation of asteroids, as well as the obtained thermophysical parameters for a part of asteroids. These thermophysical parameters can be further applied to studying the asteroids’ Yarkovsky effect, YORP effect, and so on, even can provide the relevant information for the spacecraft landing on the asteroid surface and the return mission of a spacecraft after the asteroid sampling.