TY - JOUR
T1 - Inferring interiors and structural history of top-shaped asteroids from external properties of asteroid (101955) Bennu
AU - Zhang, Yun
AU - Michel, Patrick
AU - Barnouin, Olivier S.
AU - Roberts, James H.
AU - Daly, Michael G.
AU - Ballouz, Ronald L.
AU - Walsh, Kevin J.
AU - Richardson, Derek C.
AU - Hartzell, Christine M.
AU - Lauretta, Dante S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Y.Z. and P.M. acknowledge funding from the French space agency CNES, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 870377 (project NEO-MAPP), and the Doeblin Federation (project Impact-Granular Simulations). O.S.B. was supported by the NASA Solar System Working Program under grant number NNX16AQ13G. K.J.W. was supported by the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute node Project ESPRESSO, under the cooperative agreement number 80ARC0M0008. Simulations were performed on Mésocentre SIGAMM hosted at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur and on the Deepthought2 HPC cluster administered by the Division of Informational Technology at the University of Maryland. We are grateful to the entire OSIRIS-REx Team of engineers, operators, scientists and administrators for making the encounter with Bennu possible.
Funding Information:
Y.Z. and P.M. acknowledge funding from the French space agency CNES, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 870377 (project NEO-MAPP), and the Doeblin Federation (project Impact-Granular Simulations). O.S.B. was supported by the NASA Solar System Working Program under grant number NNX16AQ13G. K.J.W. was supported by the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute node Project ESPRESSO, under the cooperative agreement number 80ARC0M0008. Simulations were performed on Mésocentre SIGAMM hosted at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur and on the Deepthought2 HPC cluster administered by the Division of Informational Technology at the University of Maryland. We are grateful to the entire OSIRIS-REx Team of engineers, operators, scientists and administrators for making the encounter with Bennu possible.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Asteroid interiors play a key role in our understanding of asteroid formation and evolution. As no direct interior probing has been done yet, characterisation of asteroids’ interiors relies on interpretations of external properties. Here we show, by numerical simulations, that the top-shaped rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu’s geophysical response to spinup is highly sensitive to its material strength. This allows us to infer Bennu’s interior properties and provide general implications for top-shaped rubble piles’ structural evolution. We find that low-cohesion (≲0.78 Pa at surface and ≲1.3 Pa inside) and low-friction (friction angle ≲ 35∘) structures with several high-cohesion internal zones can consistently account for all the known geophysical characteristics of Bennu and explain the absence of moons. Furthermore, we reveal the underlying mechanisms that lead to different failure behaviours and identify the reconfiguration pathways of top-shaped asteroids as functions of their structural properties that either facilitate or prevent the formation of moons.
AB - Asteroid interiors play a key role in our understanding of asteroid formation and evolution. As no direct interior probing has been done yet, characterisation of asteroids’ interiors relies on interpretations of external properties. Here we show, by numerical simulations, that the top-shaped rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu’s geophysical response to spinup is highly sensitive to its material strength. This allows us to infer Bennu’s interior properties and provide general implications for top-shaped rubble piles’ structural evolution. We find that low-cohesion (≲0.78 Pa at surface and ≲1.3 Pa inside) and low-friction (friction angle ≲ 35∘) structures with several high-cohesion internal zones can consistently account for all the known geophysical characteristics of Bennu and explain the absence of moons. Furthermore, we reveal the underlying mechanisms that lead to different failure behaviours and identify the reconfiguration pathways of top-shaped asteroids as functions of their structural properties that either facilitate or prevent the formation of moons.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-022-32288-y
DO - 10.1038/s41467-022-32288-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 35933392
AN - SCOPUS:85135480481
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 13
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 4589
ER -