Impact simulation in the gravity regime: Exploring the effects of parent body size and internal structure

• DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2017.05.030
• Publication Date: 2017-06-02T17:39:49Z
• Authors: P.G. Benavidez; D.D. Durda; B. Enke; A. Campo Bagatin; D.C. Richardson; E. Asphaug; W.F. Bottke
• Keywords: Parent body; Rubble; Internal friction

Abstract In this work we extend the systematic investigation of impact outcomes of 100-km-diameter targets started by Durda et al. (2007) and Benavidez et al. (2012) to targets of D = 400 km using the same range of impact conditions and two internal structures: monolithic and rubble-pile. We performed a new set of simulations in the gravity regime for targets of 400 km in diameter using these same internal structures. This provides a large set of 600 simulations performed in a systematic way that permits a thorough analysis of the impact outcomes and evaluation of the main features of the size frequency distribution due mostly to self-gravity. In addition, we use the impact outcomes to attempt to constrain the impact conditions of the asteroid belt where known asteroid families with a large expected parent body were formed. We have found fairly good matches for the Eunomia and Hygiea families. In addition, we identified a potential acceptable match to the Vesta family from a monolithic parent body of 468 km. The impact conditions of the best matches suggest that these families were formed in a dynamically excited belt. The results also suggest that the parent body of the Eunomia family could be a monolithic body of 382 km diameter, while the one for Hygiea could have a rubble-pile internal structure of 416 km diameter.