Signatures of the Impact Histories of Comets and Asteroids within Shocked Phyllosilicates, Enstatite, and Forsterite Minerals

Abstract: Throughout the lifetime of the solar system, collisions between small bodies and impacts on the surfaces of small bodies in the Kuiper Belt have occured at speeds of 1.5 – 3 km s-1 (Stern, Astron J 124, 2002), typically at 1-10 km s-1 between Trojan asteroids (Marzari et al. Icarus 119, 1996), and at ~4-8 km s-1 in the asteroid belt (Farinella and Davis, Icarus 97, 1992). Shock effects recorded by minerals composing these bodies are one observable legacy of this evolutionary process, whether …