Snow Crash: Compaction Craters on (486958) Arrokoth and Other Small KBOs, With Implications

Evidence from Arrokoth and comets strongly suggests a very low density for this and similar small Kuiper belt objects. Plausible compositions imply high porosities, in excess of 70%, and low compaction crush strengths. If so, impact craters on Arrokoth (especially Sky, its largest) formed largely by compaction of pore space and material displacement. This is consistent with geological evidence from New Horizonsimaging. High porosity reduces cratering efficiency in the gravity regime whereas compaction moves it toward crush strength scaling and increased efficiency. Compaction also guarantees that most impactor kinetic energy is taken up as waste heat near the impact point, with momentum transferred to the rest of the body by elastic waves only. Monte Carlo simulations of Sky‐forming conditions indicate that the momentum imparted likely separated Arrokoth's two lobes, but displacement was limited by dissipation at the neck between them. Unusual strength properties are not required to preserve Arrokoth's bilobate configuration. It has become apparent over the last few years that small asteroids and comets are very underdense compared with the materials they are made of. This means that their total porosities are likely quite high, in excess of 70%, both as tiny voids within particles (so‐called microscopic porosity) and spaces between particles (macroscopic porosity). But none are likely as porous as the distant denizens of the Kuiper belt such as Arrokoth (visited by the New Horizonsspacecraft in 2019). This paper concerns impact craters on Arrokoth and similar small bodies, and the rather unusual effects expected. Imagine a fluffy (fine powder) snowball striking a much larger fluffy snowball, only that the snow is not pure ice but a mixture of porous icy, rocky, and carbon‐rich particles. Even at high velocities (>100 s of m/s) craters should mostly form by compacting pore space and pushing material away from the impact point, not the traditional blasting of ejecta back into space. Similar to crush‐up of an automobile bumper, compaction helps to protect from the potentially catastrophic effects of large impacts, such as complete disruption of the target or breakup of bilobate bodies like Arrokoth, and should be incorporated in future collisional evolution studies. Arrokoth is likely a low density, highly porous, contact binary planetesimalImpact craters on Arrokoth, and particularly its largest, likely formed as compaction craters, with modest or little ejectaHigh porosity acted to protect Arrokoth from catastrophic disruption, ejecta recoil, and lobe dislocation and rearrangement Arrokoth is likely a low density, highly porous, contact binary planetesimal Impact craters on Arrokoth, and particularly its largest, likely formed as compaction craters, with modest or little ejecta High porosity acted to protect Arrokoth from catastrophic disruption, ejecta recoil, and lobe dislocation and rearrangement