A SEMIEMPIRICAL MODEL OF CATASTROPHIC BREAKUP PROCESSES

The results of laboratory impact experiments and asteroid properties are presently interpreted in terms of a semiempirical theory that derives fragment properties observed on the basis of a suitable target material velocity field arising from the impact explosion and the target's original rotation. Numerical simulations based on a study of local target properties as a function of initial positions in the target have shown fragment rotation to arise from the superposition of velocity curve field and fragment shape asphericity effects; observed properties of main asteroid families are well reproduced by the model.