Mathematics – Probability
Scientific paper
Jul 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999icar..140...49d&link_type=abstract
Icarus, Volume 140, Issue Icarus, pp. 49-52.
Mathematics
Probability
15
Scientific paper
Asteroid 253 Mathilde is found to have a collisional lifetime of approximately 4 billion years, essentially indistinguishable from the age of the Solar System. However, uncertainties in our knowledge of collisional physics of large bodies and the number of small asteroids could allow an age as young as 2 billion years. This result is consistent with general asteroid collisional evolution studies which show that a Mathilde-sized asteroid has about equal probability of being either an eroded primordial body or a more recently produced collisional fragment from a larger parent body. Assuming a weak, porous structure for Mathilde, projectiles 0.7-3.0 km in diameter are needed to form the largest craters on Mathilde, significantly smaller than the 4- to 5-km projectile needed to fragment and disperse the asteroid. If a 3-km-diameter projectile is needed to form the largest crater, then this collision could have despun Mathilde if it was initially a more rapid rotator. If a smaller, <1-km-diameter, projectile was responsible for the largest crater, then it would likely have delivered an angular momentum comparable to the present angular momentum of Mathilde, too small to significantly despin the asteroid.
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