Robin, Colas Q; Duchene, Alexia; Murdoch, Naomi; Vincent, Jean-Baptiste; Lucchetti, Alice; Pajola, Maurizio; Ernst, Carolyn M; Daly, R Terik; Barnouin, Olivier S; Raducan, Sabina-D; Michel, Patrick; Hirabayashi, Masatochi; Stott, Alexander; Cuervo, Gabriela; Jawin, Erica R; Trigo-Rodriguez, Josep M; Parro, Laura M; Sunday, Cecily; Vivet, Damien; Mimoun, David; ... (2024). Mechanical properties of rubble pile asteroids (Dimorphos, Itokawa, Ryugu, and Bennu) through surface boulder morphological analysis. Nature communications, 15(6203) Nature Publishing Group 10.1038/s41467-024-50147-w
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Planetary defense efforts rely on estimates of the mechanical properties of asteroids, which are difficult to constrain accurately from Earth. The mechanical properties of asteroid material are also important in the interpretation of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact. Here we perform a detailed morphological analysis of the surface boulders on Dimorphos using images, the primary data set available from the DART mission. We estimate the bulk angle of internal friction of the boulders to be 32.7 ± 2. 5° from our measurements of the roundness of the 34 best-resolved boulders ranging in size from 1.67-6.64 m. The elongated nature of the boulders around the DART impact site implies that they were likely formed through impact processing. Finally, we find striking similarities in the morphology of the boulders on Dimorphos with those on other rubble pile asteroids (Itokawa, Ryugu and Bennu). This leads to very similar internal friction angles across the four bodies and suggests that a common formation mechanism has shaped the boulders. Our results provide key inputs for understanding the DART impact and for improving our knowledge about the physical properties, the formation and the evolution of both near-Earth rubble-pile and binary asteroids.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
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Division/Institute: |
08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute 08 Faculty of Science > Physics Institute > Space Research and Planetary Sciences |
UniBE Contributor: |
Raducan, Sabina-Denisa |
Subjects: |
500 Science > 530 Physics 500 Science > 520 Astronomy 600 Technology > 620 Engineering |
ISSN: |
2041-1723 |
Publisher: |
Nature Publishing Group |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Pubmed Import |
Date Deposited: |
05 Aug 2024 15:13 |
Last Modified: |
05 Aug 2024 15:21 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1038/s41467-024-50147-w |
PubMed ID: |
39079972 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.48350/199409 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/199409 |
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