Related papers: Interpretations of family size distributions: The …
Very young asteroid families may record processes that accompanied their formation in the most pristine way. This makes analysis of this special class particularly interesting. We studied the very young Adelaide family in the inner part of…
We continue our investigation of the bulk properties of asteroid dynamical families identified using only asteroid proper elements (Milani et al. 2014) to provide plausible collisional interpretations. We focus on cratering families…
Asteroid families are groups of minor planets that have a common origin in breakup events. The very young compact asteroid clusters are the natural laboratory to study resonance related chaotic and nonlinear dynamics. The present dynamical…
The dynamical and physical properties of asteroid family members are widely used to reconstruct the collisional evolution of the main belt and of individual objects. Families offer insights into the properties of the parent bodies and the…
In the last decade, thanks to the development of sophisticated numerical codes, major breakthroughs have been achieved in our understanding of the formation of asteroid families by catastrophic disruption of large parent bodies. In this…
Understanding the collisional fragmentation and subsequent reaccumulation of fragments is crucial for studies of the formation and evolution of the small-body populations. Using an SPH / N-body approach, we investigate the size-frequency…
A statistical analysis of brightness variability of asteroids reveals how their shapes evolve from elongated to rough spheroidal forms, presumably driven by impact-related phenomena. Based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Moving Object…
An asteroid family is typically formed when a larger parent body undergoes a catastrophic collisional disruption, and as such family members are expected to show physical properties that closely trace the composition and mineralogical…
Collisions are one of the key processes shaping planetary systems. Asteroid families are outcomes of such collisions still identifiable across our solar system. The families provide a unique view of catastrophic disruption phenomena and…
Here we show an example of a young asteroid cluster located in a dynamically stable region, which was produced by partial disruption of a primitive body about 30 km in size. We estimate its age to be only 1.9 +/- 0.3 Myr, thus its…
We report on our study of asteroidal breakups, i.e. fragmentations of targets, subsequent gravitational reaccumulation and formation of small asteroid families. We focused on parent bodies with diameters $D_{\rm pb} = 10$ km. Simulations…
Asteroid families form as a result of large-scale collisions among main belt asteroids. The orbital distribution of fragments after a family-forming impact could inform us about their ejection velocities. Unfortunately, however, orbits…
A new family classification, based on a catalog of proper elements with $\sim 384,000$ numbered asteroids and on new methods is available. For the $45$ dynamical families with $>250$ members identified in this classification, we present an…
Asteroid families are groups of minor planets which have a common origin in catastrophic disruptions. Young asteroid families are very interesting because they represent the product of their parent body's fragmentation before orbital and…
The members of asteroid families have various shapes. We investigate the origin of their shapes by high-resolution impact simulations for catastrophic disruptions using a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code. Collisional remnants produced…
Asteroid families with ages younger than $1$ Myr offer an interesting possibility of studying the outcomes of asteroid disruptions that are little modified by subsequent evolutionary processes. We analyze a very young asteroid family…
It is known, from observational data recorded from airbursts, that small asteroids breakup at dynamical pressures lower than their mechanical strength. This means that actual theoretical models are inconsistent with observations. In this…
We use observations from the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) to determine the bias-corrected population of small members in four very young families down to sizes equivalent to several hundred meters. Using the most recent catalog of known…
Main-belt asteroids have been continuously colliding with one another since they were formed. Its size distribution is primarily determined by the size dependence of asteroid strength against catastrophic impacts. The strength scaling law…
The small ($\le$ 135 km mean radius) saturnian satellites are closely related to the rings and together they constitute a complex dynamical system where formation and destruction mechanisms compete against each other. We model the cratering…