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The Asteroidal Impact Rate upon the Terrestrial Planets: An Update

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

Duncan Olsson-Steel
Duncan Olsson-Steel*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics, The University of Adelaide, GPO Box 498, Adelaide, SA 5001
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Abstract

The probability of a collision with each of the terrestrial planets due to each of the Aten-Apollo-Amor asteroids discovered through to 1989 May is calculated; the range of possible impact velocities is also given in each case. For Mercury there are eight possible impactors known, with a mean collision probability of 1.30 × 10−9 per year; for Venus, the 32 planet-crossing asteroids give a mean collision probability of 9.63 × l0−9 per year; for the Earth the corresponding figures are 65 and 6.93 × 10−9 per year; and for Mars, 116 and 3.41 × 10−10 per year. The rate for Mars does not include the full range of Mars-crossers (i.e. those of 1.30<perihelion distance <1.67 AU are not included here), and for the interior planets any undiscovered population of asteroids would also alter the mean probability of an impact.

Type
Solar & Solar System
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , 1990 , pp. 303 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1990

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