Related papers: Regolith behavior under asteroid-level gravity con…
When a dense stream of dry, non-cohesive grains hits a fixed target, a collimated sheet is ejected from the impact region, very similar to what happens for a stream of water. In this study, as a continuation of the investigation why such…
A loosely packed bed of sand sits precariously on the fence between mechanically stable and flowing states. This has especially strong implications for animals or vehicles needing to navigate sandy environments, which can sink and become…
We have conducted a NanoSIMS-based search for presolar material in samples recently returned from C-type asteroid Ryugu as part of JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission. We report the detection of all major presolar grain types with O- and C-anomalous…
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will impact its target asteroid, Dimorphos, at an oblique angle that will not be known prior to the impact. We computed iSALE-3D simulations of DART-like impacts on asteroid surfaces at…
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…
From small seeds falling from trees to asteroids colliding with planets and moons, the impact of projectiles onto granular targets occurs in nature at different scales. In this paper, we investigate open questions in the mechanics of…
In order to obtain the substantial information about the surface physics and thermal property of the target asteroid (162173) 1999 JU3, which will be visited by Hayabusa 2 in a sample return mission, with the Advanced Thermal Physical Model…
A prescription for the fragment size distribution resulting from dust grain collisions is essential when modelling a range of astrophysical systems, such as debris disks and planetary rings. While the slope of the fragment size distribution…
The structural coefficient of restitution describes the kinetic energy dissipation upon low-velocity (~0.1 m/s) impact of a small asteroid lander, MASCOT, against a hard, ideally elastic plane surface. It is a crucial worst-case input for…
Active asteroid (6478) Gault sheds mass independent of location along its orbit. Rotational instability is considered to induce the observed activities. If this is the case, because Gaults breakup event has not been detected, surface…
We present an experimental investigation on the rheological behavior of model granular media made of nearly elastic spherical particles. The experiments are performed in a cylindrical Couette geometry and the experimental device is placed…
Turbulent coagulation in protoplanetary disks is known to operate on timescale far shorter than the lifetime of the disk. In the absence of mechanisms that replenish the small dust grain population, protoplanetary disks would rapidly lose…
Context. After landing on C-type asteroid Ryugu, MASCOT imaged brightly colored, submillimeter-sized inclusions in a small rock. Hayabusa2 successfully returned a sample of small particles from the surface of Ryugu, but none of these appear…
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…
The rotational distribution of asteroids as a function of their size is used {as a diagnostic of} their physical properties and evolution. Recent photometric surveys from the Gaia mission, allowing observation of asteroids with long spin…
This paper presents a quantitative study of the evolution of the ejecta cloud released from a hypervelocity impact on a binary asteroid. We performed numerical simulations of the post-impact dynamics of the ejecta cloud in the framework of…
A concept for forced reentry of small orbital debris with characteristic dimension ~ 10 cm from the highly populated sun synchronous orbit by injecting micron scale dust grains to artificially enhance drag is discussed. The drag enhancement…
In recent years, nine small near-Earth asteroids were discovered a few hours before the collision with the Earth: these are about one meter in diameter objects that have all disintegrated in the atmosphere, generating bright fireballs…
We examine data obtained by the Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) onboard the Chang'E-4 (CE-4) mission to study the dielectric properties and stratigraphy of lunar regolith on the far side of the Moon. The data collected from January 2019 to…
We study the roughness of stylolite surfaces (i.e. natural pressure-dissolution surfaces in sedimentary rocks) from profiler measurements at laboratory scales. The roughness is shown to be nicely described by a self-affine scaling…