TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact disruption of gravity-dominated bodies
T2 - New simulation data and scaling
AU - Movshovitz, N.
AU - Nimmo, F.
AU - Korycansky, D. G.
AU - Asphaug, E.
AU - Owen, J. M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2016/9/1
Y1 - 2016/9/1
N2 - We present results from a suite of 169 hydrocode simulations of collisions between planetary bodies with radii from 100 to 1000 km. The simulation data are used to derive a simple scaling law for the threshold for catastrophic disruption, defined as a collision that leads to half the total colliding mass escaping the system post impact. For a target radius 100 ≤ RT ≤ 1000km and a mass MT and a projectile radius rp ≤ RT and mass mp we find that a head-on impact with velocity magnitude v is catastrophic if the kinetic energy of the system in the center of mass frame, K=0.5MTmpv2/(MT+mp), exceeds a threshold value K* that is a few times U=(3/5)GMT2/RT+(3/5)Gmp2/rp+GMTmp/(RT+rp), the gravitational binding energy of the system at the moment of impact; G is the gravitational constant. In all head-on collision runs we find K*=(5.5±2.9)U. Oblique impacts are catastrophic when the fraction of kinetic energy contained in the volume of the projectile intersecting the target during impact exceeds ~2 K* for 30° impacts and ~3.5 K* for 45° impacts. We compare predictions made with this scaling to those made with existing scaling laws in the literature extrapolated from numerical studies on smaller targets. We find significant divergence between predictions where in general our results suggest a lower threshold for disruption except for highly oblique impacts with rp RT. This has implications for the efficiency of collisional grinding in the asteroid belt (Morbidelli et al., [2009] Icarus, 204, 558-573), Kuiper belt (Greenstreet et al., [2015] Icarus, 258, 267-288), and early Solar System accretion (Chambers [2013], Icarus, 224, 43-56).
AB - We present results from a suite of 169 hydrocode simulations of collisions between planetary bodies with radii from 100 to 1000 km. The simulation data are used to derive a simple scaling law for the threshold for catastrophic disruption, defined as a collision that leads to half the total colliding mass escaping the system post impact. For a target radius 100 ≤ RT ≤ 1000km and a mass MT and a projectile radius rp ≤ RT and mass mp we find that a head-on impact with velocity magnitude v is catastrophic if the kinetic energy of the system in the center of mass frame, K=0.5MTmpv2/(MT+mp), exceeds a threshold value K* that is a few times U=(3/5)GMT2/RT+(3/5)Gmp2/rp+GMTmp/(RT+rp), the gravitational binding energy of the system at the moment of impact; G is the gravitational constant. In all head-on collision runs we find K*=(5.5±2.9)U. Oblique impacts are catastrophic when the fraction of kinetic energy contained in the volume of the projectile intersecting the target during impact exceeds ~2 K* for 30° impacts and ~3.5 K* for 45° impacts. We compare predictions made with this scaling to those made with existing scaling laws in the literature extrapolated from numerical studies on smaller targets. We find significant divergence between predictions where in general our results suggest a lower threshold for disruption except for highly oblique impacts with rp RT. This has implications for the efficiency of collisional grinding in the asteroid belt (Morbidelli et al., [2009] Icarus, 204, 558-573), Kuiper belt (Greenstreet et al., [2015] Icarus, 258, 267-288), and early Solar System accretion (Chambers [2013], Icarus, 224, 43-56).
KW - Collisional physics
KW - Planetary formation
KW - Planetesimals
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U2 - 10.1016/j.icarus.2016.04.018
DO - 10.1016/j.icarus.2016.04.018
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84964317940
SN - 0019-1035
VL - 275
SP - 85
EP - 96
JO - Icarus
JF - Icarus
ER -