Collisional formation of top-shaped asteroids and implications for the origins of Ryugu and Bennu

Michel, P.; Ballouz, R.-L.; Barnouin, O. S.; Jutzi, M.; Walsh, K. J.; May, B. H.; Manzoni, C.; Richardson, D. C.; Schwartz, S. R.; Sugita, S.; Watanabe, S.; Miyamoto, H.; Hirabayashi, M.; Bottke, W. F.; Connolly, H. C.; Yoshikawa, M.; Lauretta, D. S. (2020). Collisional formation of top-shaped asteroids and implications for the origins of Ryugu and Bennu. Nature Communications, 11(1) Springer Nature 10.1038/s41467-020-16433-z

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Asteroid shapes and hydration levels can serve as tracers of their history and origin. For instance, the asteroids (162173) Ryugu and (101955) Bennu have an oblate spheroidal shape with a pronounced equator, but contain different surface hydration levels. Here we show, through numerical simulations of large asteroid disruptions, that oblate spheroids, some of which have a pronounced equator defining a spinning top shape, can form directly through gravitational reaccumulation. We further show that rubble piles formed in a single disruption can have similar porosities but variable degrees of hydration. The direct formation of top shapes from single disruption alone can explain the relatively old crater-retention ages of the equatorial features of Ryugu and Bennu. Two separate parent-body disruptions are not necessarily required to explain their different hydration levels.

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