TY - JOUR
T1 - Constraints on the pre-impact orbits of Solar system giant impactors
AU - Jackson, Alan P.
AU - Gabriel, Travis S.J.
AU - Asphaug, Erik I.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding through NASA grant NNX16AI31G (Stop hitting yourself). The results reported herein benefited from collaborations and/or information exchange within NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) research coordination network sponsored by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The authors are grateful to Billy Quarles for providing the data from fig. 2d of QL15 for use in Fig. 4. APJ thanks Dan Tamayo for useful discussions. The authors thank the anonymous referee for insightful suggestions that have improved the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.
PY - 2018/3/1
Y1 - 2018/3/1
N2 - We provide a fast method for computing constraints on impactor pre-impact orbits, applying this to the late giant impacts in the Solar system. These constraints can be used to make quick, broad comparisons of different collision scenarios, identifying some immediately as low-probability events, and narrowing the parameter space in which to target follow-up studies with expensive N-body simulations. We benchmark our parameter space predictions, finding good agreement with existing N-body studies for the Moon. We suggest that high-velocity impact scenarios in the inner Solar system, including all currently proposed single impact scenarios for the formation of Mercury, should be disfavoured. This leaves a multiple hit-andrun scenario as the most probable currently proposed for the formation of Mercury.
AB - We provide a fast method for computing constraints on impactor pre-impact orbits, applying this to the late giant impacts in the Solar system. These constraints can be used to make quick, broad comparisons of different collision scenarios, identifying some immediately as low-probability events, and narrowing the parameter space in which to target follow-up studies with expensive N-body simulations. We benchmark our parameter space predictions, finding good agreement with existing N-body studies for the Moon. We suggest that high-velocity impact scenarios in the inner Solar system, including all currently proposed single impact scenarios for the formation of Mercury, should be disfavoured. This leaves a multiple hit-andrun scenario as the most probable currently proposed for the formation of Mercury.
KW - Celestial mechanics
KW - Methods: numerical
KW - Moon
KW - Planets and satellites: formation
KW - Planets and satellites: terrestrial planets
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U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stx2901
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stx2901
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85040247107
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 474
SP - 2924
EP - 2936
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 3
ER -