Is asteroid 2002NY40 a rubble pile gravitationally disrupted

Abstract

The existence of meteoroid streams containing meter-sized meteoroids capable of produc- ing meteorites after atmospheric interaction was pro- posed quite recently [1]. Their existence has important implications because they can be naturally delivering to the Earth different types of rock-forming materials from Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHA). The recent identification of Near Earth Object (NEO) asteroid 2002NY40 as source of meteorite- dropping bolides [2] opens new questions on the na- ture of this asteroid, and the physical process that originated the fireballs detected in 2006 August. Two of the fireballs exhibited a clear similarity with the orbit of 2002NY40, while a third meteoroid was hav- ing an orbit close to NEO 2004NL8. In fact, these five bodies would be related by the close similarity among their orbits (Figure 1, and Table 3 of [1]). We try to focus here on the possible origin of this complex of bodies on the basis of our present (little) knowledge on the structure and orbital evolution of asteroids 2002NY40 and 2004NL8.