P034-0007
Surface densities and boulders size-frequency distribution on binary asteroid (65803) Didymos-Dimorphos
Thursday, 10 December 2020
Poster
Maurizio Pajola1, Alice Lucchetti2, Stavro Ivanovski3, Giovanni Poggiali4, Simone Ieva5, Davide Perna6, Elisabetta Dotto7, Vincenzo Della Corte8, Gabriele Cremonese2, Elena Mazzotta Epifani9, Marilena Amoroso10, Simone Pirrotta11, Andrew F. Cheng12, Nancy L Chabot13, Andrew Rivkin14, Olivier S Barnouin15, Carolyn M Ernst15, R. Terik Daly16, Masatoshi Hirabayashi17, Erik I Asphaug18, Stephen R Schwartz18, Josep Trigo-Rodríguez19, Eugene Fahnestock20, Ivano Bertini21, John Robert Brucato4, Andrea Capannolo22, Biagio Cotugno23, Valerio Di Tana23, Igor Gai24, Gabriele Impresario11, Michelle Lavagna22, Andrea Meneghin25, Federico Miglioretti23, Dario Modenini24, Pasquale Palumbo26, Alessandro Rossi27, Emanuele Simioni28, Simone Simonetti23, Paolo Tortora29, Marco Zannoni29, Giovanni Zannotti22 and Angelo Zinzi11, (1)INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Padova, Italy, (2)INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Padova, Italy, (3)INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, Trieste, Italy, (4)INAF National Institute for Astrophysics, Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, Firenze, Italy, (5)INAF National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome, Italy, (6)INAF/LESIA, Roma/Paris, Italy, (7)INAF Observatory of Rome, Rome, Italy, (8)IAPS-INAF, Rome, Italy, (9)INAF, OAC, Naples, Italy, (10)Italian Space Agency, Rome, Italy, (11)ASI, Roma, Italy, (12)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (13)Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD, United States, (14)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States, (15)JHU Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD, United States, (16)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, United States, (17)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (18)University of Arizona, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ, United States, (19)Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC), Meteorites, Minor Bodies and Planetary Science, Cerdanyola del Vallés (Barcelona), Spain, (20)JPL/Caltech, Pasadena, CA, United States, (21)CISAS - Center for Studies and Activities for Space, University of Padova, Padova, Italy, (22)Politecnico di Milano - Bovisa Campus, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Aerospaziali, Milano, Italy, (23)Argotec, Torino, Italy, (24)Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy, (25)INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy, Arcetri, Italy, (26)Parthenope University of Naples, Scienze e Tecnologie, Naples, Italy, (27)CNR Istituto di Fisica Applicata “Nello Carrara”, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy, (28)INAF-OAPD, Padova, Italy, (29)University of Bologna, Department of Industrial Engineering, Bologna, Italy
Abstract:
In Autumn 2022, the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission (DART) will impact the surface of asteroid Dimorphos, a ~165 m body orbiting around asteroid (65803) Didymos, with the main aim to demonstrate the kinetic impactor technique for Planetary Defense. During the last minutes of the mission, the DRACO scientific camera onboard DART will image the surface of both the primary and the secondary asteroids at different spatial scales, allowing the detection of boulders larger than 0.6-1.5 m on the impacted side of Dimorphos and larger than 11-21 m on Didymos. To complement such observations, the ASI “Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids” (LICIACube) will be released from DART ten days before the impact and will be then autonomously guided through a flyby with closest approach distance of 55 km from Dimorphos. Through the LEIA (LICIACube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid) narrow angle camera, it will be possible to safely witness the DART redirection test in situ, while its crater and the ejecta and plume are being formed. At closest approach LEIA will image Dimorphos at ~2 m/px: we will therefore be able to identify all boulders larger than 4-7 m located on the imaged side of the asteroid. The analysis of the boulder surface densities and size frequency distributions (SFD) on Didymos and Dimorphos will be important to understand the processes that originated them (impact cratering versus parent body disruption). In addition, we will compare the SFD derived on the binary asteroid with those obtained on other S-type or carbonaceous minor bodies, highlighting the similarities and differences. In this work, the results of the boulder SFD expected from both LICIACube and DART images are presented.
Acknowledgments: This research was supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) within the LICIACube project (ASI-INAF agreement AC n. 2019-31-HH.0).
