BOTTKE , William F.

International audience

The Moon holds important clues to the early evolution of the solar system. Some 50 impact basins (crater diameter D > 300 km) have been recognized on the lunar surface, implying that the early impact flux was much higher than it is now. The basin-forming impactors were suspected to be asteroids released from an inner extension of the main belt...

International audience

We found mini-craters on Bennu's boulders. We measure their sizes. We then use scaling laws to derive the strength and collisional lifetimes of C-type objects.

The asteroid (16) Psyche may be the metal-rich remnant of a differentiated planetesimal, or it may be a highly reduced, metal-rich asteroidal material that never differentiated. The NASA Psyche mission aims to determine Psyche's provenance. Here we describe the possible solar system regions of origin for Psyche, prior to its likely implantation...