Fragment ejection velocities and the collisional evolution of asteroids

We have applied the algorithm developed by Petit and Farinella (Celest. Mech. 57, 1–28, 1993) to model the outcomes of impacts between asteroids of different sizes, to show that a crucial feature of these models is the assumed relationship between velocity and mass of fragments ejected after a shattering impact. Not only how the mean velocity depends upon mass is important to determine the extent of fragment reaccumulation, but also the distribution of velocities about the mean values. The available experimental evidence on this issue is still sparse, and does not constrain the collisional models well enough to allow us to make reliable predictions on the outcomes of impacts between bodies of size much larger than the laboratory targets. As a consequence, when the collisional outcome models are used as an input for simulations of the asteroid collisional history since the origin of the solar system, the results show a strong sensitivity to the assumed velocity vs mass relationship. This sensitivity is stronger in the diameter range (a few tens to a few hundreds of km) where the self-gravitational reaccumulation of fragments is most effective, but may also extend to much smaller sizes.