Asteroid (101955) Bennu's weak boulders and thermally anomalous equator.

ABSTRACT: Thermal inertia and surface roughness are proxies for the physical characteristics of planetary surfaces. Global maps of these two properties distinguish the boulder population on near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (101955) Bennu into two types that differ in strength, and both have lower thermal inertia than expected for boulders and meteorites. Neither has strongly temperature-dependent thermal properties. The weaker boulder type probably would not survive atmospheric entry and thus may not be represented in the meteorite collection. The maps also show a high-thermal inertia band at Bennu's equator, which might be explained by processes such as compaction or strength sorting during mass movement, but these explanations are not wholly consistent with other data. Our findings imply that other C-com

SUBMITTER: Rozitis B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7544501 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature