Main Belt evolution in the context of adaptive-optics observations of large asteroids

Miroslav Broz , Pavel Sevecek , Pierre Vernazza (1) , Laurent Jorda (2) , Josef Hanus , Michael Marsset (3) , Alexis Drouard (2) , Matti Viikinkoski (4) , Benoit Carry (5) , Franck Marchis (6) , Romain Fétick (7) , Thierry Fusco (2) , Mirel Birlan (8)

1 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
2 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
3 ARC - Astrophysics Research Centre [Belfast]
4 Department of Mathematics [Tampere]
5 ESAC - European Space Astronomy Centre
6 SETI - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute
7 LAM - Les Afriques dans le monde
8 IMCCE - Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Ephémérides

According to the size-frequency distribution (SFD) of the Main Belt, there are approximately 4 times 105 small (D = 2-3 km) projectiles which determine the surface topography of large (D > 100 km) targets. Nowadays, the topography is accessible to adaptive-optics observations by the VLT/SPHERE/ZIMPOL instrument, which typically have a pixel scale 3 km and capability to resolve Dc = 30-40 km craters in suitably illuminated areas. We used statistical collisional models (Monte-Carlo) to compute intrinsic collisional probabilities, impact velocities, expected number of catastrophic collisions, numbers of cratering events, taking into account not only mean numbers but also their dispersion. Even within the Main Belt, collisional environment can be very different from target to target.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

Miroslav Broz, Pavel Sevecek, Pierre Vernazza, Laurent Jorda, Josef Hanus, et al.. Main Belt evolution in the context of adaptive-optics observations of large asteroids. EPSC-DPS2019, Sep 2019, Geneve, Switzerland. ⟨hal-02350043⟩