Full numerical simulations of catastrophic small body collisions

By Z. Leinhardt, S. Stewart. 2008

146 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The outcome of collisions between small icy bodies, such as Kuiper belt objects, is poorly understood and yet a critical component of the evolution of the trans-neptunian region. The expected physical properties of outer Solar System materials (high porosity, mixed ice–rock composition, and low material strength) pose significant computational challenges. We present results from catastrophic small body collisions using a new hybrid hydrocode to N-body code computational technique. This method allows detailed modeling of shock propagation and material modification as well as gravitational reaccumulation. Here, we consider a wide range of material strengths to span the possible range of Kuiper belt objects. We find that the shear strength of the target is important in determining the collision outcome for 2 to 50-km radius bodies, which are traditionally thought to be in a pure gravity regime. The catastrophic disruption and dispersal criteria, Q D ∗ , can vary by up to a factor of three between strong crystalline and weak aggregate materials. The material within the largest reaccumulated remnants experiences a wide range of shock pressures. The dispersal and reaccumulation process results in the material on the surfaces of the largest remnants having experienced a wider range of shock pressures compared to material in the interior. Hence, depending on the initial structure and composition, the surface materials on large, reaccumulated bodies in the outer Solar System may exhibit complex spectral and albedo variations. Finally, we present revised catastrophic disruption criteria for a range of impact velocities and material strengths for outer Solar System bodies.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atmospheric Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e7ca665638697557869d0321b1433de46825bf49

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Citations in the corpus

FORMATION OF KUIPER BELT BINARIES BY GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE (2010, methodology): “The fragmentation can be included in the next generation models using scaling laws developed for low-speed collisions between icy bodies (e.g., Leinhardt & Stewart 2009; Stewart & Leinhardt 2009), even though it can be challenging to deal with the full complexity of the collisional cascade.”
Fragment properties at the catastrophic disruption threshold: The effect of the parent body’s internal structure (2009, methodology): “As Leinhardt and Stewart (2008) showed, the shock wave decays more rapidly in strong (high shear strength) materials than in weak (low shear strength) materials.”
COLLISIONS BETWEEN GRAVITY-DOMINATED BODIES. I. OUTCOME REGIMES AND SCALING LAWS (2011, methodology): “In the following sections, we also include published results of subsonic and supersonic collisions from previous work (Leinhardt & Stewart 2009; Agnor & Asphaug 2004a,b; Marcus et al. 2009, 2010b; Durda et al. 2004, 2007; Jutzi et al. 2010; Benz & Asphaug 1999; Benz 2000; Stewart & Leinhardt 2009;…”
Gas- and dust evolution in protoplanetary disks (2010, methodology): “…we adopt the simple recipe pf = 0 if ∆u < uf − δu 1 if ∆u > uf 1− uf−∆u δu else (43) with a transition widthδu and the fragmentation speeduf as free parameter which is assumed to be 1 m s−1, following experimental work ofBlum & Muench(1993) and theoretical studies of Leinhardt & Stewart(2009).”