New Study on Asteroid Rotation Periods Accepted for Publication

A new research article on asteroid rotational characteristics, conducted by researchers from IOTA/ME, has been accepted for publication in Astrophysics and is now available on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.17415

The study analyzes a dataset of 34,326 asteroids to explore the statistical relationship between diameter and rotation period. The results highlight three main populations: a dense cluster below the spin barrier, a group of small, fast-rotating asteroids, and a more diffuse distribution.

Geometric and density-based analyses revealed that the densest region consists of asteroids with diameters of 3–10 km and rotation periods of 3–9 hours, some of which extend beyond the spin barrier. Furthermore, a third-degree polynomial model was found to provide the most stable representation of the overall trend, and an empirical lower boundary was proposed, below which no asteroids were detected.