Publications by authors named "Laura M Parro"

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.

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Article Synopsis
  • Planetary defense research is heavily dependent on understanding the mechanical properties of asteroids, which are challenging to assess from Earth.
  • A study of boulders on the asteroid Dimorphos, using data from the DART mission, revealed an estimated internal friction angle of 32.7 ± 2. 5°, indicating they likely formed from impact processing.
  • The similarities between Dimorphos boulders and those on other rubble-pile asteroids (Itokawa, Ryugu, and Bennu) suggest a shared formation process and enhance our understanding of asteroid characteristics and the implications for planetary defense strategies.
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The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART, NASA) spacecraft revealed that the primary of the (65803) Didymos near-Earth asteroid (NEA) binary system is not exactly the expected spinning top shape observed for other km-size asteroids. Ground based radar observations predicted that such shape was compatible with the uncertainty along the direction of the asteroid spin axis. Indeed, Didymos shows crater and landslide features, and evidence for boulder motion at low equatorial latitudes.

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Until the acquisition of in-situ measurements, the study of the present-day heat flow of Mars must rely on indirect methods, mainly based on the relation between the thermal state of the lithosphere and its mechanical strength, or on theoretical models of internal evolution. Here, we present a first-order global model for the present-day surface heat flow for Mars, based on the radiogenic heat production of the crust and mantle, on scaling of heat flow variations arising from crustal thickness and topography variations, and on the heat flow derived from the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere beneath the North Polar Region. Our preferred model finds heat flows varying between 14 and 25 mW m, with an average value of 19 mW m.

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