Lessons learned from NASA's DART impact about disrupting rubble-pile asteroids

Abstract

We present a series of numerical simulations using a shock physics smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code, investigating energetic impacts on small celestial bodies characterised by diverse internal structures, ranging from weak and homogeneous compositions to rubble-pile structures with varying boulder volume packing. Our findings reveal that the internal structure of these rubble-pile bodies significantly influences the impact outcomes. Specifically, we observe that the same impact energy can either catastrophically disrupt a target with a low boulder packing (<30 vol%), or result in the ejection of only a small fraction of material from a target with the same mass but high boulder packing (>40 vol%). This finding highlights the pivotal role played by the rubble-pile structure, effectively acting as a bulk shear strength, which governs the size and behaviour of the resulting impact. Consequently, understanding and characterising the internal structure of asteroids will be of paramount importance for any future efforts to deflect or disrupt an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• The Dynamical State of the Didymos System Before and After the DART Impact
• Rapid formation of binary asteroid systems post rotational failure: a recipe for making atypically shaped satellites
• Thermal and Optical Characterization of Near-Earth Objects: Science Commissioning of the Recently Upgraded Mid-Infrared Camera MIRSI on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility
• The Influence of Central Body Tides on Catastrophic Disruptions of Close-in Planetary Satellites