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We performed impact experiments to observe patterns in an ejecta curtain with targets consisting of small sand particles and large inclusions comparable to or smaller than the size of the projectiles. The spatial intensity distributions in…

We investigate the effects of low--velocity impacts of rocks and boulders, originally released after the DART impact, on the surface of Didymos and the dynamics of dust particles released by those impacts. We determine if any of those…

Surface shedding of an asteroid is a failure mode where surface materials fly off due to strong centrifugal forces beyond the critical spin period, while the internal structure does not deform significantly. This paper proposes a possible…

Extrasolar debris disks are detected by observing dust, which is thought to be released during planetesimal collisions. This implies that planetesimals are dynamically excited ("stirred"), such that collisions are sufficiently common and…

Terrestrial planets are believed to be formed via giant impacts of Mars-sized protoplanets. Planets formed via giant impacts have highly eccentric orbits. A swarm of planetesimals around the planets may lead to eccentricity damping for the…

With laboratory experiments we investigate the ejecta of low-velocity (~m/s) impacts into multi-scale granular media and compare them against ejecta from impacts into mono-scale media. Impacts are into a 50 cm diameter galvanized washtub…

This work presents a mission concept for in-orbit particle collection for sampling and exploration missions towards Near-Earth asteroids. Ejecta is generated via a small kinetic impactor and two possible collection strategies are…

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 visited the asteroid (162173) Ryugu and provided many high-resolution images of its surface, revealing that Ryugu has a spinning-top shape with a prominent equatorial ridge, much like the shapes reported…

We carry out experiments of low velocity normal impacts into granular materials that fill an approximately cylindrical 42 litre tub. Motions in the granular medium are tracked with an array of 7 embedded accelerometers. Longitudinal pulses…

We carry out experiments of 104 m/s velocity oblique impacts into a granular medium (sand). Impact craters have nearly round rims even at a grazing angle of about $10^\circ$, however, the strength of seismic pulses excited by the impact is…

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…

An understanding of the post-impact dynamics of ejecta clouds are crucial to the planning of a kinetic impact mission to an asteroid, and also has great implications for the history of planetary formation. The purpose of this article to…

This paper examines the questions of whether smaller asteroids that burst in the air over water can generate tsunamis that could pose a threat to distant locations. Such air burst-generated tsunamis are qualitatively different than the more…

Gravitational scattering between massive planets has been invoked to explain the eccentricity distribution of extrasolar planets. For scattering to occur, the planets must either form in -- or migrate into -- an unstable configuration. In…

Satellites around large asteroids are preferentially found among those with the most rapid rotation and elongated shape. The taxonomic statistics are similarly skewed; in total, 13 asteroids larger than 100 km are known to have satellites,…

We consider the observational signatures of giant impacts between planetary embryos. While the debris released in the impact remains in a clump for only a single orbit, there is a much longer lasting asymmetry caused by the fact that all…

Asteroid (162173) Ryugu was the first spinning-top-shaped asteroid to be closely approached by a probe, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which sent numerous high-resolution images of Ryugu to the Earth and revealed the nature of this type of…

Surfaces of planetary bodies can have strong electric fields, subjecting conductive grains to repulsive electrostatic forces. This has been proposed as mechanism to eject grains from the ground. To quantify this process, we study mm-sized…

Craters formed by the impact of agglomerated materials are commonly observed in nature, such as asteroids colliding with planets and moons. In this paper, we investigate how the projectile spin and cohesion lead to different crater shapes.…

It has been suggested that the ejection to interplanetary space of terrestrial crustal material, accelerated in a large impact, may result in the interchange of biological material between Earth and other Solar System bodies. In this paper,…