Planetary Group Seminar: From ravioli to spaetzle: the peculiar shapes of small bodies as clues to their origin (M. Jutzi)

  • Date: Jun 14, 2018
  • Time: 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Martin Jutzi
  • Physics Institute, Space Research and Planetary Sciences, University of Bern
  • Location: MPS
  • Room: Auditorium
  • Host: Jakob Deller
Planetary Group Seminar: From ravioli to spaetzle: the peculiar shapes of small bodies as clues to their origin (M. Jutzi)
The origin of the particular shapes of small bodies, such as cometary nuclei, asteroids and moons, is a topic of active research. How and when these objects acquired their peculiar characteristics has distinct implications on the origin of the solar system and its dynamics. We first consider two-components structures, such as the recently observed comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko or asteroid Itokawa. We explore various formation scenarios and discuss the implications regarding the origin and dynamics of small bodies. The small inner moons of Saturn, with shapes ranging from the unique 'ravioli-like' forms of Pan and Atlas to the highly elongated structure of Prometheus have very different characteristics. We show that the forms of these small moons provide direct evidence of the processes at the final stages of their formation, involving pairwise encounters of moonlets of comparable size.


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