UCLA

The locations of the fully despun, double synchronous end states of tidal evolution, where the rotation rates of both the primary and secondary components in a binary system synchronize with the mean motion about the center of mass, are derived for spherical components. For a given amount of scaled angular momentum J/. J', the tidal end states are over-plotted on a tidal evolution diagram in terms of mass ratio of the system and the component separation (semimajor axis in units of primary radii). Fully synchronous orbits may not exist for every combination of mass ratio and angular momentum; for example, equal-mass binary systems require J/. J' > 0.44. When fully synchronous orbits exist for prograde systems, tidal evolution naturally expands the orbit to the stable outer synchronous solution. The location of the unstable inner synchronous orbit is typically within two primary radii and often within the radius of the primary itself. With the exception of nearly equal-mass binaries, binary asteroid systems are in the midst of lengthy tidal evolutions, far from their fully synchronous tidal end states. Of those systems with unequal-mass components, few have even reached the stability limit that splits the fully synchronous orbit curves into unstable inner and stable outer solutions.Calculations of material strength based on limiting the tidal evolution time to the age of the Solar System indicate that binary asteroids in the main belt with 100-km-scale primary components are consistent with being made of monolithic or fractured rock as expected for binaries likely formed from sub-catastrophic impacts in the early Solar System. To tidally evolve in their dynamical lifetime, near-Earth binaries with km-scale primaries or smaller created via a spin-up mechanism must be much weaker mechanically than their main-belt counterparts even if formed in the main belt prior to injection into the near-Earth region. Small main-belt binaries, those having primary components less than 10. km in diameter, could bridge the gap between the large main-belt binaries and the near-Earth binaries, as, depending on the age of the systems, small main-belt binaries could either be as strong as the large main-belt binaries or as weak as the near-Earth binaries. The inherent uncertainty in the age of a binary system is the leading source of error in calculation of material properties, capable of affecting the product of rigidity μ and tidal dissipation function Q by orders of magnitude. Several other issues affecting the calculation of μQ are considered, though these typically affect the calculation by no more than a factor of two. We also find indirect evidence within all three groups of binary asteroids that the semimajor axis of the mutual orbit in a binary system may evolve via another mechanism (or mechanisms) in addition to tides with the binary YORP effect being a likely candidate. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.