Abstract

Images collected during NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission provide the first resolved views of the Didymos binary asteroid system. These images reveal that the primary asteroid, Didymos, is flattened and has plausible undulations along its equatorial perimeter. At high elevations, its surface is rough and contains large boulders and craters; at low elevations its surface is smooth and possesses fewer large boulders and craters. Didymos’ moon, Dimorphos, possesses an intimate mixture of boulders, several asteroid-wide lineaments, and a handful of craters. The surfaces of both asteroids include boulders that are large relative to their host body, suggesting that both asteroids are rubble piles. Based on these observations, our models indicate that Didymos has a surface cohesion ≤ 1 Pa and an interior cohesion of ∼10 Pa, while Dimorphos has a surface cohesion of <0.9 Pa. Crater size-frequency analyzes indicate the surface age of Didymos is 40–130 times older than Dimorphos, with likely absolute ages of ~12.5 Myr and <0.3 Myr, respectively. Solar radiation could have increased Didymos’ spin rate leading to internal deformation and surface mass shedding, which likely created Dimorphos.

Images collected during NASA’s DART mission of the asteroid Didymos and its moon, Dimorphos, are used to explore the origin and evolution of the binary system. Authors analysis indicate that both asteroids are weak rubble piles and that Didymos’ surface should be about 40 to 130 times older than Dimorphos.

Details

Title
The geology and evolution of the Near-Earth binary asteroid system (65803) Didymos
Author
Barnouin, Olivier 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ballouz, Ronald-Louis 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Marchi, Simone 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Vincent, Jean-Baptiste 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Agrusa, Harrison 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Zhang, Yun 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ernst, Carolyn M. 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Pajola, Maurizio 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Tusberti, Filippo 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lucchetti, Alice 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Daly, R. Terik 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Palmer, Eric 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Walsh, Kevin J. 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Michel, Patrick 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Sunshine, Jessica M. 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Rizos, Juan L. 10 ; Farnham, Tony L. 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Richardson, Derek C. 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Parro, Laura M. 11   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Murdoch, Naomi 12   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Robin, Colas Q. 12 ; Hirabayashi, Masatoshi 13   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kahout, Tomas 14   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Asphaug, Erik 15 ; Raducan, Sabina D. 16   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Jutzi, Martin 16 ; Ferrari, Fabio 17   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hasselmann, Pedro Henrique Aragao 18 ; CampoBagatin, Adriano 11   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Chabot, Nancy L. 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Li, Jian-Yang 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Cheng, Andrew F. 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Nolan, Michael C. 15   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Stickle, Angela M. 1 ; Karatekin, Ozgur 19 ; Dotto, Elisabetta 18   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Della Corte, Vincenzo 20 ; Mazzotta Epifani, Elena 18   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Rossi, Alessandro 21   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Gai, Igor 22 ; Deshapriya, Jasinghege Don Prasanna 18 ; Bertini, Ivano 23 ; Zinzi, Angelo 24   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Trigo-Rodriguez, Josep M. 25   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Beccarelli, Joel 26 ; Ivanovski, Stavro Lambrov 27 ; Brucato, John Robert 28   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Poggiali, Giovanni 28   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Zanotti, Giovanni 16   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Amoroso, Marilena 24 ; Capannolo, Andrea 17 ; Cremonese, Gabriele 6 ; Dall’Ora, Massimo 29 ; Ieva, Simone 18   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Impresario, Gabriele 24   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lavagn, Michèle 17 ; Modenini, Dario 22   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Palumbo, Pasquale 23 ; Perna, Davide 18 ; Pirrotta, Simone 24   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Tortora, Paolo 22   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Zannoni, Marco 22 ; Rivkin, Andrew S. 1 

 Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, USA (GRID:grid.474430.0) (ISNI:0000 0004 0630 1170) 
 Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, USA (GRID:grid.201894.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 0321 4125) 
 DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany (GRID:grid.7551.6) (ISNI:0000 0000 8983 7915) 
 Laboratory Lagrange, University of the Côte d’Azur, Observatory of the Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Nice, France (GRID:grid.462572.0) (ISNI:0000 0004 0385 5397); University of Maryland, College Park, USA (GRID:grid.164295.d) (ISNI:0000 0001 0941 7177) 
 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA (GRID:grid.214458.e) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7347) 
 INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Padova, Italy (GRID:grid.436939.2) (ISNI:0000 0001 2175 0853) 
 Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, USA (GRID:grid.423138.f) (ISNI:0000 0004 0637 3991) 
 Laboratory Lagrange, University of the Côte d’Azur, Observatory of the Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Nice, France (GRID:grid.462572.0) (ISNI:0000 0004 0385 5397); School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Department of Systems Innovation, Tokyo, Japan (GRID:grid.26999.3d) (ISNI:0000 0001 2169 1048) 
 University of Maryland, College Park, USA (GRID:grid.164295.d) (ISNI:0000 0001 0941 7177) 
10  CSIC, Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, Granada, Spain (GRID:grid.450285.e) (ISNI:0000 0004 1793 7043) 
11  University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain (GRID:grid.5268.9) (ISNI:0000 0001 2168 1800) 
12  University of Toulouse, Superior Institute of Aeronautics and Space, Toulouse, France (GRID:grid.508721.9) (ISNI:0000 0001 2353 1689) 
13  Georgia Institute of Technology, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Atlanta, USA (GRID:grid.213917.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2097 4943) 
14  Univ. of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland (GRID:grid.7737.4) (ISNI:0000 0004 0410 2071) 
15  University of Arizona, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tuscon, USA (GRID:grid.134563.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 2168 186X) 
16  Univ. of Bern, Bern, Switzerland (GRID:grid.5734.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 0726 5157) 
17  Politechnic University of Milan, Milan, Italy (GRID:grid.4708.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 2822) 
18  INAF- Astronomical Observatory of Rome, Rome, Italy (GRID:grid.463298.2) (ISNI:0000 0001 2168 8201) 
19  Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium (GRID:grid.425636.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2297 3653) 
20  INAF-Institue of Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome, Italy (GRID:grid.466835.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 1776 2255) 
21  CNR, Institue of Applied Physics “Nello Carrara”, Florence, Italy (GRID:grid.466837.8) (ISNI:0000 0004 0371 4199) 
22  University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy (GRID:grid.6292.f) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 1758) 
23  University of Parthenope, Parthenope, Italy (GRID:grid.17682.3a) (ISNI:0000 0001 0111 3566) 
24  ASI, Rome, Italy (GRID:grid.423784.e) (ISNI:0000 0000 9801 3133) 
25  Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC), Barcelona, Spain (GRID:grid.450286.d) (ISNI:0000 0004 1793 4897) 
26  Univ. of Padova, Padova, Italy (GRID:grid.5608.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 3470) 
27  INAF- Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, Trieste, Italy (GRID:grid.5608.b) 
28  INAF- Astronomical Observatory of Arcetri, Arcetri, Italy (GRID:grid.5608.b) 
29  INAF- Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Capodimonte, Italy (GRID:grid.466952.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 2295 4049) 
Pages
6202
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3086183817
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2024. corrected publication 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.