MODELLING THE OUTCOMES OF HIGH-VELOCITY IMPACTS BETWEEN SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES

We present a self-consistent numerical algorithm aimed at predicting the outcomes of high-velocity impacts between asteroids (or other small bodies of the solar system), based on a set of model input parameters which can be estimated from the available experimental evidence, and including the possible gravitational reaccumulation of ejected fragments whose velocity is less than a suitably defined escape velocity. All the fragment mass distributions are modelled by truncated power laws, and a possible correlation between fragment ejection velocity and mass is taken into account in different ways, including a probabilistic one. We analyze in particular the effectiveness of the gravitational reaccumulation process in terms of different choices of the collisional parameters and the assumed relationship between fragment speed and mass. Both the transition size beyond which solid targets are likely to reaccumulate a large fraction of the fragment mass and the collision energy needed to disperse most of the fragments are sensitive functions of the assumed fragment velocity versus mass relationship. We also give some examples of how our algorithm can be applied to study the origin and collisional history of small solar system bodies, including the asteroid 951 Gaspra (recently imaged by the Galileo probe) and the asteroid families.