[meteorite-list] Self-cleaning asteroids?

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jul 8 19:18:17 2005
Message-ID: <fn2uc1900co33jsovmetqhc3srqf9f30fd_at_4ax.com>

I was wondering if any study/consideration has been given to "self-cleaning" asteroids. You know
how vibrations of something such as a table can cause small objects sitting on the surface to bounce
into the air a short distance? And I believe that a similar mechanism has been suggested for
launching the chunks of Mars and the Moon that reach Earth? I was thinking that, with their much,
much lower escape velocities, wouldn't the shock/vibrations from collisions on asteroids tend to
send any loose material flying away from the surface, some of it at escape velocity? So would not,
over time, asteroids be to some extent "self=cleaning" of surface soil/rubble?
Received on Fri 08 Jul 2005 07:30:05 PM PDT