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The ~200 m/s impact of a single 400-kg Bjurb\"ole L/LL ordinary chondrite meteorite onto sea ice resulted in the catastrophic disruption of the projectile. This resulted in a significant fraction of decimeter-sized fragments that exhibit power law cumulative size and mass distributions. This size range is underrepresented in impact experiments and asteroid boulder studies. The Bjurb\"ole projectile fragments share similarities in shape (sphericity, and roughness at small and large scale) with asteroid boulders. However, the mean aspect ratio (3D measurement) and apparent aspect ratio (2D measurement) of Bjurb\"ole fragment is 0.83 and 0.77, respectively, indicating that Bjurb\"ole fragments are more equidimensional compared to both fragments produced in smaller scale impact experiments and asteroid boulders. These differences may be attributed either to the fragment source (projectile vs. target), to the high porosity and low strength of Bjurb\"ole, to the lower impact velocity compared with typical asteroid collision velocities, or potentially to fragment erosion during sea sediment penetration or cleaning., Comment: Data repository https://www.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10062980

Morphological mapping is a fundamental step in studying the processes that shaped an asteroid surface. Yet, it is challenging and often requires multiple independent assessments by trained experts. Here, we present fast methods to detect and characterize meaningful terrains from the topographic roughness: entropy of information, and local mean surface orientation. We apply our techniques to Didymos and Dimorphos, the target asteroids of NASA's DART mission: first attempt to deflect an asteroid. Our methods reliably identify morphological units at multiple scales. The comparative study reveals various terrain types, signatures of processes that transformed Didymos and Dimorphos. Didymos shows the most heterogeneity and morphology that indicate recent resurfacing events. Dimorphos is comparatively rougher than Didymos, which may result from the formation process of the binary pair and past interaction between the two bodies. Our methods can be readily applied to other bodies and data sets., Comment: submitted to PSJ

Context. Upcoming space missions will provide us with surface-resolved NEA reflectance spectra. Neural networks are useful tools for analysing reflectance spectra and determining material composition with high precision and low processing time. Aims. We applied neural-network models on disk-resolved spectra of the Eros and Itokawa asteroids observed by the NEAR Shoemaker and Hayabusa spacecraft. With this approach, the mineral variations or intensity of space weathering can be mapped. Methods. We tested two types of convolutional neural networks. The first one was trained using asteroid reflectance spectra with known taxonomy classes. The other one used silicate reflectance spectra with assigned mineral abundances and compositions. Results. The reliability of the classification model depends on the resolution of reflectance spectra. Typical F1 score and Cohen's ${\kappa}_C$ values decrease from about 0.90 for high-resolution spectra to about 0.70 for low-resolution spectra. The predicted silicate composition does not strongly depend on spectrum resolution and coverage of the 2${\mu}$m band of pyroxene. The typical root mean square error is between 6 and 10 percentage points. For the Eros and Itokawa asteroids, the predicted taxonomy classes favour the S-type and the predicted surface compositions are homogeneous and correspond to the composition of L/LL and LL ordinary chondrites, respectively. On the Itokawa surface, the model identified fresh spots that were connected with craters or coarse-grain areas. Conclusions. The neural network models trained with measured spectra of asteroids and silicate samples are suitable for deriving surface silicate mineralogy with a reasonable level of accuracy. The predicted surface mineralogy is comparable to the mineralogy of returned samples measured in the laboratory. Moreover, the taxonomical predictions can point out locations of fresher areas., Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables; plus appendices

While no known asteroid poses a threat to Earth for at least the next century, the catalog of near-Earth asteroids is incomplete for objects whose impacts would produce regional devastation. Several approaches have been proposed to potentially prevent an asteroid impact with Earth by deflecting or disrupting an asteroid. A test of kinetic impact technology was identified as the highest priority space mission related to asteroid mitigation. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is the first full-scale test of kinetic impact technology. The mission's target asteroid was Dimorphos, the secondary member of the S-type binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos. This binary asteroid system was chosen to enable ground-based telescopes to quantify the asteroid deflection caused by DART's impact. While past missions have utilized impactors to investigate the properties of small bodies those earlier missions were not intended to deflect their targets and did not achieve measurable deflections. Here we report the DART spacecraft's autonomous kinetic impact into Dimorphos and reconstruct the impact event, including the timeline leading to impact, the location and nature of the DART impact site, and the size and shape of Dimorphos. The successful impact of the DART spacecraft with Dimorphos and the resulting change in Dimorphos's orbit demonstrates that kinetic impactor technology is a viable technique to potentially defend Earth if necessary., Comment: Accepted by Nature

Some active asteroids have been proposed to be the result of impact events. Because active asteroids are generally discovered serendipitously only after their tail formation, the process of the impact ejecta evolving into a tail has never been directly observed. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, apart from having successfully changed the orbital period of Dimorphos, demonstrated the activation process of an asteroid from an impact under precisely known impact conditions. Here we report the observations of the DART impact ejecta with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) from impact time T+15 minutes to T+18.5 days at spatial resolutions of ~2.1 km per pixel. Our observations reveal a complex evolution of ejecta, which is first dominated by the gravitational interaction between the Didymos binary system and the ejected dust and later by solar radiation pressure. The lowest-speed ejecta dispersed via a sustained tail that displayed a consistent morphology with previously observed asteroid tails thought to be produced by impact. The ejecta evolution following DART's controlled impact experiment thus provides a framework for understanding the fundamental mechanisms acting on asteroids disrupted by natural impact., Comment: accepted by Nature

Chemical and mineral compositions of asteroids reflect the formation and history of our Solar System. This knowledge is also important for planetary defence and in-space resource utilisation. We aim to develop a fast and robust neural-network-based method for deriving the mineral modal and chemical compositions of silicate materials from their visible and near-infrared spectra. The method should be able to process raw spectra without significant pre-processing. We designed a convolutional neural network with two hidden layers for the analysis of the spectra, and trained it using labelled reflectance spectra. For the training, we used a dataset that consisted of reflectance spectra of real silicate samples stored in the RELAB and C-Tape databases, namely olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, their mixtures, and olivine-pyroxene-rich meteorites. We used the model on two datasets. First, we evaluated the model reliability on a test dataset where we compared the model classification with known compositional reference values. The individual classification results are mostly within 10 percentage-point intervals around the correct values. Second, we classified the reflectance spectra of S-complex (Q-type and V-type, also including A-type) asteroids with known Bus-DeMeo taxonomy classes. The predicted mineral chemical composition of S-type and Q-type asteroids agree with the chemical composition of ordinary chondrites. The modal abundances of V-type and A-type asteroids show a dominant contribution of orthopyroxene and olivine, respectively. Additionally, our predictions of the mineral modal composition of S-type and Q-type asteroids show an apparent depletion of olivine related to the attenuation of its diagnostic absorptions with space weathering. This trend is consistent with previous results of the slower pyroxene response to space weathering relative to olivine., Comment: main text: 12 pages, 12 figures, 10 tables; appendix: 8 pages, 20 figures, 6 tables

Shock metamorphism in ordinary chondrites allows for reconstructing impact events between asteroids in the main asteroid belt. Shock-darkening of ordinary chondrites occurs at the onset of complete shock melting of the rock (>70 GPa) or injection of sulfide and metal melt into the cracks within solid silicates (\sim 50 GPa). Darkening of ordinary chondrites masks diagnostic silicate features observed in the reflectance spectrum of S-complex asteroids so they appear similar to C/X-complex asteroids. In this work, we investigate the shock pressure and associated metamorphism pattern in rubble-pile asteroids at impact velocities of 4-10 km/s. We use the iSALE shock physics code and implement two-dimensional models with simplified properties in order to quantify the influence of the following parameters on shock-darkening efficiency: impact velocity, porosity within the asteroid, impactor size, and ejection efficiency. We observe that, in rubble-pile asteroids, the velocity and size of the impactor are the constraining parameters in recording high-grade shock metamorphism. Yet, the recorded fraction of higher shock stages remains low (<0.2). Varying the porosity of the boulders from 10% to 30% does not significantly affect the distribution of pressure and fraction of shock-darkened material. The pressure distribution in rubble-pile asteroids is very similar to that of monolithic asteroids with the same porosity. Thus, producing significant volumes of high-degree shocked ordinary chondrites requires strong collision events (impact velocities above 8 km/s and/or large sizes of impactors). A large amount of asteroid material escapes during an impact event (up to 90%); however, only a small portion of the escaping material is shock-darkened (6%)., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures

The June 2, 2018, impact of asteroid 2018 LA over Botswana is only the second asteroid detected in space prior to impacting over land. Here, we report on the successful recovery of meteorites. Additional astrometric data refine the approach orbit and define the spin period and shape of the asteroid. Video observations of the fireball constrain the asteroid's position in its orbit and were used to triangulate the location of the fireball's main flare over the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. 23 meteorites were recovered. A consortium study of eight of these classifies Motopi Pan as a HED polymict breccia derived from howardite, cumulate and basaltic eucrite, and diogenite lithologies. Before impact, 2018 LA was a solid rock of about 156 cm diameter with high bulk density about 2.85 g/cm3, a relatively low albedo pV about 0.25, no significant opposition effect on the asteroid brightness, and an impact kinetic energy of about 0.2 kt. The orbit of 2018 LA is consistent with an origin at Vesta (or its Vestoids) and delivery into an Earth-impacting orbit via the nu_6 resonance. The impact that ejected 2018 LA in an orbit towards Earth occurred 22.8 +/- 3.8 Ma ago. Zircons record a concordant U-Pb age of 4563 +/- 11 Ma and a consistent 207Pb/206Pb age of 4563 +/- 6 Ma. A much younger Pb-Pb phosphate resetting age of 4234 +/- 41 Ma was found. From this impact chronology, we discuss what is the possible source crater of Motopi Pan and the age of Vesta's Veneneia impact basin., Comment: Meteoritics & Planetary Science (2021)

Climate change is a major impending threat to the future of humanity. According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), our emissions are estimated to have caused 0.8 deg C-1.2 deg C of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) above pre-industrial levels. AGW is likely to reach 1.5 degrees C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate. As the climate change is driven by the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere, there is a broad consensus that the mitigation of climate change requires transition to low GHG emission energy sources, technologies and practices. Implementing such changes systematically from individual to community-wide scales together with the resulting cultural changes and leadership towards environmental consciousness and responsibility are crucial to mitigate the looming damage of AGW. Given planetary scientists' wide recognition of the realities of climate change, and the need for us to maintain credibility by leading by example, it is appropriate to make own professional behavior more environmentally responsible. While scientists are few in numbers, and planetary scientists far fewer, high volumes of academic travel to conferences, panels, colloquia, and research collaboration visits together with extensive use of large, energetically demanding infrastructures make the "carbon footprint" of scientists much higher than that of an average citizen. This White Paper focuses on how modifying our activities, particularly associated with academic travel, can affect the carbon footprint of the planetary science community, and it makes recommendations on how the community and the funding agencies could best participate in the cultural change required to mitigate the damage that AGW will cause., Comment: Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032 White Paper. Asking for endorsements

The fall of the Annama meteorite occurred early morning (local time) on April 19, 2014 on the Kola Peninsula (Russia). Based on mineralogy and physical properties, Annama is a typical H chondrite. It has a high Ar-Ar age of 4.4 Ga. Its cosmic ray exposure history is atypical as it is not part of the large group of H chondrites with a prominent 7 - 8 Ma peak in the exposure age histograms. Instead, its exposure age is within uncertainty of a smaller peak at 30 \pm 4 Ma. The results from short-lived radionuclides are compatible with an atmosperic pre-entry radius of 30 - 40 cm. However, based on noble gas and cosmogenic radionuclide data, Annama must have been part of a larger body (radius >65 cm) for a large part of its cosmic ray exposure history. The 10Be concentration indicates a recent (3 - 5 Ma) breakup which may be responsible for the Annama parent body size reduction to 30 - 35 cm pre-entry radius.

We describe the fall of Annama meteorite occurred in the remote Kola Peninsula (Russia) close to Finnish border on April 19, 2014 (local time). The fireball was instrumentally observed by the Finnish Fireball Network. From these observations the strewnfield was computed and two first meteorites were found only a few hundred meters from the predicted landing site on May 29th and May 30th 2014, so that the meteorite (an H4-5 chondrite) experienced only minimal terrestrial alteration. The accuracy of the observations allowed a precise geocentric radiant to be obtained, and the heliocentric orbit for the progenitor meteoroid to be calculated. Backward integrations of the orbits of selected near-Earth asteroids and the Annama meteoroid showed that they rapidly diverged so that the Annama meteorites are unlikely related to them. The only exception seems to be the recently discovered 2014UR116 that shows a plausible dynamic relationship. Instead, analysis of the heliocentric orbit of the meteoroid suggests that the delivery of Annama onto an Earth-crossing Apollo type orbit occurred via the 4:1 mean motion resonance with Jupiter or the nu6 secular resonance, dynamic mechanisms that are responsible for delivering to Earth most meteorites studied so far., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures and 4 tables

Bulk and grain density, porosity, and magnetic susceptibility of 67 individuals of Ko\v{s}ice H chondrite fall were measured. The mean bulk and grain densities were determined to be 3.43 g/cm$^\text{3}$ with standard deviation (s.d.) of 0.11 g/cm$^\text{3}$ and 3.79 g/cm$^\text{3}$ with s.d. 0.07 g/cm$^\text{3}$, respectively. Porosity is in the range from 4.2 to 16.1%. The logarithm of the apparent magnetic susceptibility (in 10$^\text{-9}$ m$^\text{3}$/kg) shows narrow distribution from 5.17 to 5.49 with mean value at 5.35 with s.d. 0.08. These results indicate that all studied Ko\v{s}ice meteorites are of the same composition down to ~g scale without presence of foreign (non-H) clasts and are similar to other H chondrites. Ko\v{s}ice is thus a homogeneous meteorite fall derived from a homogeneous meteoroid.

In this study, we conduct a detailed analysis of the Ko\v{s}ice meteorite fall (February 28, 2010), in order to derive a reliable law describing the mass distribution among the recovered fragments. In total, 218 fragments of the Ko\v{s}ice meteorite, with a total mass of 11.285 kg, were analyzed. Bimodal Weibull, bimodal Grady and bimodal lognormal distributions are found to be the most appropriate for describing the Ko\v{s}ice fragmentation process. Based on the assumption of bimodal lognormal, bimodal Grady, bimodal sequential and bimodal Weibull fragmentation distributions, we suggest that, prior to further extensive fragmentation in the lower atmosphere, the Ko\v{s}ice meteoroid was initially represented by two independent pieces with cumulative residual masses of approximately 2 kg and 9 kg respectively. The smaller piece produced about 2 kg of multiple lightweight meteorite fragments with the mean around 12 g. The larger one resulted in 9 kg of meteorite fragments, recovered on the ground, including the two heaviest pieces of 2.374 kg and 2.167 kg with the mean around 140 g. Based on our investigations, we conclude that two to three larger fragments of 500-1000g each should exist, but were either not recovered or not reported by illegal meteorite hunters.

Non-invasive geophysical prospecting and a thermodynamic model were used to examine the structure, depth and lateral extent of the frozen core of a palsa near Lake Peeraj\"arvi, in northwest Finland. A simple thermodynamic model verified that the current climatic conditions in the study area allow sustainable palsa development. A ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey of the palsa under both winter and summer conditions revealed its internal structure and the size of its frozen core. GPR imaging in summer detected the upper peat/core boundary, and imaging in winter detected a deep reflector that probably represents the lower core boundary. This indicates that only a combined summer and winter GPR survey completely reveals the lateral and vertical extent of the frozen core of the palsa. The core underlies the active layer at a depth of ~0.6 m and extends to about 4 m depth. Its lateral extent is ~15 m x ~30 m. The presence of the frozen core could also be traced as minima in surface temperature and ground conductivity measurements. These field methods and thermodynamic models can be utilized in studies of climate impact on Arctic wetlands.

The mineralogy and physical properties of Chelyabinsk meteorites (fall, February 15, 2013) are presented. Three types of meteorite material are present, described as the light-colored, dark-colored, and impact-melt lithologies. All are of LL5 composition with the impact-melt lithology being close to whole-rock melt and the dark-colored lithology being shock-darkened due to partial melting of iron metal and sulfides. This enables us to study the effect of increasing shock on material with identical composition and origin. Based on the magnetic susceptibility, the Chelyabinsk meteorites are richer in metallic iron as compared to other LL chondrites. The measured bulk and grain densities and the porosity closely resemble other LL chondrites. Shock darkening does not have a significant effect on the material physical properties, but causes a decrease of reflectance and decrease in silicate absorption bands in the reflectance spectra. This is similar to the space weathering effects observed on asteroids. However, compared to space weathered materials, there is a negligible to minor slope change observed in impact-melt and shock-darkened meteorite spectra. Thus, it is possible that some dark asteroids with invisible silicate absorption bands may be composed of relatively fresh shock-darkened chondritic material.