Modeling the Erosion of Hot, Dense Atmospheres by Impacts

Impact induced erosion of hot and dense atmospheres

Authors:

1. Valery Shuvalov (a)
2. Ekkehard Kührt (b)
3. Detlef de Niem (b)
4. Kai Wünnemann (c)

Affiliations:

a. Institute of Geospheres Dynamics, Russian Academy of Sciences, LeninskiiProspekt 38-1, 119334 Moscow, Russia

b. German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Rutherfordstraße 2, D-12489 Berlin, Germany

c. Museum für Naturkunde, Invalidenstraße 43, D-10115 Berlin, Germany

Abstract:

Previous investigations of impact-induced atmospheric erosion considered mainly crater-forming impacts. Simple estimates show that in dense primary planetary atmospheres, considerable erosion could be induced by aerial bursts resulting from impacts of 1 to 10 km sized projectiles. Numerical simulations of cometary and asteroidal impacts (striking unmodified and crater-forming, impacting as fragmented meteorites, or causing aerial bursts) into dense (200 bar) atmospheres of different temperatureshave been performed to obtain the amount of atmospheric erosion. The results have been approximated by simple analytical formulae.