DEEP IMPACT: Exploration of the Mantle-Core Interface Region in a Cometary Nucleus

Details DEEP IMPACT: Exploration of the Mantle-Core Interface Region in a Cometary Nucleus DEEP IMPACT: Exploration of the Mantle-Core Interface Region in a Cometary Nucleus

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.0825b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #08.25; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1088

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We describe an impactor mission concept designed to explore the nature of the mantle-core region on Phaethon - a 5 km diameter Apollo asteroid that is almost certainly a dormant comet nucleus. Phaethon is co-orbital with the Geminid meteor stream (Whipple, 1983) and has the same spectral qualities as the asteroid 4015 Wilson-Harrington also known as comet107P/Wilson-Harrington. We show that a Delta 7325 can lift a new type of Discovery class spacecraft with a 350 kg projectile and deliver it to impact on Phaethon with enough energy to create a crater approximately 100 m in diameter and 20 m deep. Instrumentation on the spacecraft can follow the creation of the crater (expected to take several minutes), make in situ and remote observations of the ejecta, determine elemental composition from the impact flash, and provide a global, high resolution, multi-spectral reconnaissance of the geologic properties of Phaethon. Enough time remains after the formation of the crater and before the end of the encounter sequence to record the properties of the crater. With a depth of 20 m over appreciable horizontal scale ( ~ 50 m), the newly formed crater will allow aspects of the vertical structure through the mantle to be remotely observed at a maximum resolution of 2m/pixel. We anticipate that cometary activity on Phaethon should be briefly reactivated by this experiment, which will provide new insights into cometary processes.

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