Brick-pile To Rubble-pile Impact Transitions

Details Brick-pile To Rubble-pile Impact Transitions Brick-pile To Rubble-pile Impact Transitions

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.1308k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #13.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1054

Physics

Geophysics

Scientific paper

One of the chief lines of evidence that asteroids are "rubble piles", (loose aggregates of rock and/or ice held together by gravity and friction) is the under-density that many of them exhibit compared to the density of solid rock as inferred from surface compositions. Under-densities up to 50% or greater have been found for some objects (Britt and Consolmagno 2002). However, little is known of the internal structure of these bodies. Under-density may be due to "microporosity", i.e. porosity at the level of grains, or "macroporosity" in which void space is provided by the mis-match of large structural blocks that comprise the bulk of the object.
We present work that models sub-catastrophic impacts into "brick piles", i.e. close-fitting aggregates with little or no void space. Calculations follow the partial or complete dispersal of an asteroid and its reassembly. After reassembly, the post-impact volume of the object is compared to the pre-impact object to derive a void fraction.
Model calculations were carried out with programs based on the Open Dynamics Engine library that has been used by us for a number of studies (Korycansky and Asphaug 2009, Korycansky 2010a,b LPSC). Initial brick-pile objects were constructed by means of quasi-random Voronoi decompositions of an initial volume that is the hull of the pre-impact object. We will present results on the amount and distribution of void space of post-impact rubble piles and compare to the observed distribution of inferred void space, and characterize our results in terms of body and impact parameters, such as numbers and size distribution of pre-impact brick piles and impact velocities and geometry.
This work has been supported by NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics program grant NNX07AQ04G.

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