Computing and analysis of gravity field of Eros433 using polyhedron model

Abstract:

To better understand the properties of gravity field of irregularly shaped asteroid, this paper adopted the Polyhedron modeling method to calculate the gravity filed of asteroid Eros433, and analyzed the distributing properties of this asteroid’s gravity field. Firstly this article introduced the concept of Polyhedron model and the method of calculating polyhedron model of asteroid, and then the polyhedron model of asteroid Eros433 was given. After that, Gauss Law and Green’s formula are applied to the calculation, and by twice integral transformation the triple integral of gravitational potential function can be transformed into single integral, which can be used in polyhedron model to derive the formulas of gravitational potential function, gravitational acceleration and Laplacian. Finally, the formulas derived were applied to calculate and analyze the distributing properties of gravity field of Eros433, after taking the self-rotation of asteroid into consideration, Pseudo-potential surface and Zero velocity curve are used to analyze the orbital dynamic environment around the asteroid and the position conditions of equilibrium points of asteroid.