Abstract
The surfaces of main-belt and near-Earth asteroids have been carved over the age of the solar system by violent collisions with other asteroids. The craters and related features left behind can be used to interpret each asteroid's unique impact history, which depends on several factors: (i) the dynamical and physical properties of the asteroid (e.g., size, orbit, composition, internal structure), (ii) the nature of the projectile popula- tion striking the asteroid over time, (iii) the asteroid's response to a high- velocity impact, and (iv) the capacity of impact erosion processes and tidal disruption to modify preexisting craters. In this chapter, we describe how numerical hydrocodes, dynamical calculations, and simulations of surface histories allow us to unscramble the complex crater records seen on main belt asteroids like 951 Gaspra and 243 Ida and constrain the processes that have created the impact records. We also present a template for interpret- ing crater history results from near-Earth asteroids like 433 Eros, which will be visited soon by the NEAR spacecraft.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Asphaug, E. (2000) The large, undisturbed craters of Mathilde: Evidence for structural porosity, Lunar Planet Sci. 31, 1864.
Asphaug, E. (1997) Impact origin of the Vesta family, Meteor. Planet. Sci. 32, 965–980.
Asphaug, E. and Thomas, P.C. (1999) Modeling mysterious Mathilde, Lunar Planet. Sci. 30, 2028.
Asphaug, E., Ostro, S.J., Hudson, R.S., Scheeres, D J. and Benz, W. (1996) Disruptive impacts into small asteroids, Nature 393, 437–439.
Belton, M.J.S., Veverka, J., Thomas, P., Helfenstein, P., Simonelli, D., Chapman, C., Davies, M.E., Greeley, R., Greenberg, R. and Head, J. (1992) Galileo encounter with 951 Gaspra First pictures of an asteroid, Science 257, 1647–1652.
Benz, W. and Asphaug, E. (1999) Catastrophic disruptions revisited, Icarus 142, 5–20.
Binzel, R.P., Gaffey, M.J., Thomas, P.C., Zellner, B.H., Storrs, A.D. and Wells, E.N. (1997) Geologic mapping of Vesta from 1994 Hubble Space Telescope images, Icarus 128, 95–103.
Bottke, W.F., Jedicke, R., Morbidelli, A., Petit, J.-M., Gladman B. (2000) Understanding the distribution of near-Earth asteroids, Science 288, 2190–2194.
Bottke, W.F., Richardson, D.C. and Love, S.G. (1997) Can tidal disruption of asteroids make crater chains on the Earth and Moon? Icarus 126, 470–474.
Bottke, W.F., Jr., Richardson, D.C., Michel, P. and Love, S.G. (1999) 1620 Geographos and 433 Eros: Shaped by planetary tides? Astron. J. 117, 1921–1928.
Bottke, W.F., Nolan, M.C., Greenberg, R. and Kolvoord, R.A. (1994) Velocity distributions among colliding asteroids, Icarus 107, 255–268.
Bowell, E., Muinonen, K., and Wasserman, L.H. (1994) A public-domain asteroid orbit data base, in Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1993, eds. A. Milani, M.Di Martino, and A. Cellino, Kluwer, pp. 477–481.
Chapman, C.R., Merline, W.J. and Thomas, P. (1999) Cratering on Mathilde, Icarus 140, 28–33.
Davis, D.R. (1999) The collisional history of asteroid 253 Mathilde, Icarus 140, 49–52.
Davis, D.R., Chapman, C.R., Durda, D.D., Farinella, P. and Marzari, F. (1996) The formation and collisional/dynamical evolution of the Ida/Dactyl system as part of the Koronis family, Icarus 120, 220–230.
Durda, D.D., Greenberg, R., and Jedicke, R. (1998) Collisional models and scaling laws: A new interpretation of the shape of the main belt asteroid distribution, Icarus 135, 431–440.
Durda, D.D. (1996) The formation of asteroidal satellites in catastrophic collisions, Icarus 120, 212–219.
Farinella, P. and Davis, D.R. (1992) Collision rates and impact velocities in the main asteroid belt, Icarus 97, 111–123.
Geissler, P., Petit, J.-M., Durda, D.D., Greenberg, R., Bottke, W., Nolan, M and Moore, J. 1996 Erosion and ejecta reaccretion on 243 Ida and its moon, Icarus 120, 140–157.
Greenberg, R., Nolan, M.C., Bottke, W.F., Kolvoord, R.A. and Veverka, J. (1994) Collisional history of Gaspra, Icarus 107, 84–97.
Greenberg, R., Bottke, W.F. Nolan, M., Geissler, P., Petit, J.-M., Durda, D.D., Asphaug, E. and Head, J. (1996) Collisional and dynamical history of Ida, Icarus 120, 106–118.
Housen, K.R., Holsapple, K.A. and Voss, M.E. (1999) Compaction as the origin of the unusual craters on the asteroid Mathilde, Nature 402, 155–157.
Jedicke, R., and Metcalfe, T.S. (1998) The orbital and absolute magnitude distributions of main belt asteroids, Icarus 131, 245–260.
Love, S.G. and Ahrens, T.J. (1996) Catastrophic impacts on gravity dominated asteroids, Icarus 124, 141–155.
Melosh, H.J. and Ryan, E.V. (1997) Asteroids: Shattered but not dispersed, Icarus 129, 562–564.
Melosh, H.J., Nemtchinov, I.V., Zetzer, Yu.I. (1994) Non-nuclear strategies for deflecting comets and asteroids, in Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids, ed. T. Gehrels, Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 1111–1132.
Melosh, H.J. (1989) Impact Cratering: A Geologic Process, Oxford University Press, New York.
Nolan, M.C., Asphaug, E., Melosh, H.J. and Greenberg, R. (1996) Impact craters on asteroids: Does gravity or strength control their size?, Icarus 124, 359–371.
Nolan, M.C. (1994) Delivery of meteorites from the asteroid belt, Ph.D Thesis., Univ. Arizona, Tucson.
Nolan, M.C., Asphaug, E. and Greenberg, R. (1992) Numerical simulation of regolith production on 951 Gaspra, Meteoritics 27, 270.
Rabinowitz, D., Helin, E., Lawrence, K., Pravdo, S. (1999) A reduced estimate of the number of kilometer-sized near-Earth asteroids, Nature 403, 165–166.
Rabinowitz, D., Bowell, E., Shoemaker, E.M. and Muinonen, K. (1994) The population of Earth-crossing asteroids, in Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids, ed. T. Gehrels, Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 285–312.
Richardson, D.C., Bottke, W.F. and Love, S.G. (1998) Tidal distortion and disruption of Earth-crossing asteroids, Icarus 134, 47–76.
Tanga, P., Cellino, A., Michel, P., Zappala, V., Paolicchi, P. and Dell’Oro, A. (1999) On the size distribution of asteroid families: The role of geometry, Icarus 141, 65–78.
Thomas, P.C. (1999) Large craters on small objects: occurrence, morphology, and effects, Icarus 142, 89–96.
Thomas, P.C., Binzel, R.P., Gaffey, M.J., Storrs, A.D. Wells, E.N. and Zellner, B.H. (1997) Impact excavation on asteroid 4 Vesta: Hubble Space Telescope results, Science 277, 1492–1495.
Van Houten, C.J., Van Houten-Groeneveld, L, Herget, P. and Gehrels, T. (1970) The Palomar-Leiden survey of faint minor planets, Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 2, 339.
Veverka, J., and 13 co-authors (1999) NEAR encounter with asteroid 253 Mathilde: Overview, Icarus 140, 3–16.
Veverka, J., and 16 co-authors (1997) NEAR’s flyby of 253 Mathilde: Images of a C asteroid, Science 278, 2109–2114.
Wetherill, G.W. (1967) Collisions in the asteroid belt, J. Geophys. Res. 72, 2429–2444.
Williams, J.G. (1973) Meteorites from the asteroid belt? Eos Trans. AGU 54, 233.
Wisdom, J. (1983) Chaotic behavior and the origin of the 3/1 Kirkwood gap, Icarus 56, 51–74.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bottke, W.F., Greenberg, R. (2001). The Impact Record on Asteroid Surfaces. In: Marov, M.Y., Rickman, H. (eds) Collisional Processes in the Solar System. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 261. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0712-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0712-2_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3832-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0712-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive