Yarkovsky effect
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~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Yarkovsky effect: 1) Radiation from asteroid's surface 2) Prograde rotating asteroid 2.1) Location with "Afternoon" 3) Asteroid's orbit 4) Radiation from Sun
In astrophysics, the Yarkovsky effect is a force acting on a rotating body in space caused by the anisotropic emission of thermal photons, which carry momentum. It is usually considered in relation to meteoroids or small asteroids (about 10 cm to 10 km in diameter), as its influence is most significant for these bodies.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Yarkovsky effect” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.