Formation of Asteroid Satellites

Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Abstract

Collisions are a fundamental process in the origin and evolution of planetary systems. For this reason, investigating impacts and impact outcomes is a prerequisite for accurately modeling the formation and evolution of planetary bodies. The inventory of satellites orbiting small Solar System bodies provides critical constraints that can be used to understand small body collisions. The ongoing work of this team represents the first systematic investigation of binary asteroid formation and produces modeled satellite systems and families of collision fragments consistent with those observed in the main asteroid belt. The research with this award will make the numerical models of asteroid satellite formation increasingly more realistic, in order to address several fundamental issues about binary asteroid formation that are still not fully understood and to enhance the ability to compare modeled binary properties with the ever increasing variety of observed asteroid satellite systems. The research team will investigate asteroid satellite and family formation via impacts onto rubble-pile targets (collisional evolution models suggest that most asteroids have been substantially fractured or shattered and reassembled by impacts since their formation), using the same numerical methods already employed to simulate solid-target impacts. Finally, the formation and survival of satellite systems during the late stages of planet formation will be investigated to determine the steady-state fraction of asteroid binaries capable of surviving from the planet formation epoch to today. The work on this award will provide a strong synergistic link to existing observational programs that are detecting minor planet satellite systems at an ever-increasing rate. The work will help to understand the origin of the observed systems and will assist in directing future observations with scarce telescopic resources. The work continues to advance and solidify the partnerships formed between the Southwest Research Institute and The University of California Santa Cruz and The University of Maryland, and opens a new partnership with the Planetary Science Institute, providing an avenue through which scientists with different types of expertise can work together to achieve synergistic research results. The work will also continue intimate interaction with ongoing development of cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, in collaboration with JPL?s Machine Learning Group, aimed at improving the efficiency of numerical simulations. The many results of the ongoing research project have been presented to scientific colleagues at major, international astronomical meetings, and in journal papers and book articles in the peer-reviewed press. The research results are shared with students as research activities and results are incorporated into lecture and discussion material in college-level astronomy courses and in presentations in primary school classrooms where visually exciting results are shared with eager young students. Research results are also shared with the general public through extensive public outreach efforts that include television documentaries, radio interviews, and popular articles in magazines.