Craters on Charon: Impactors From a Collisional Cascade Among Trans-Neptunian Objects

Abstract

We consider whether equilibrium size distributions from collisional cascades match the frequency of impactors derived from New Horizons crater counts on Charon (Singer et al 2019). Using an analytic model and a suite of numerical simulations, we demonstrate that collisional cascades generate wavy size distributions; the morphology of the waves depends on the binding energy of solids $Q_d^\star$ and the collision velocity $v_c$. For an adopted minimum size of solids, $r_{min}$ = 1 micron, and collision velocity $v_c$ = 1-3 km/sec, the waves are rather insensitive to the gravitational component of $Q_d^\star$. If the bulk strength component of $Q_d^\star$ is $Q_s r^{e_s}$ for particles with radius $r$, size distributions with small $Q_s$ are much wavier than those with large $Q_s$; systems with $e_s \approx -0.4$ have stronger waves than systems with $e_s \approx 0$. Detailed comparisons with the New Horizons data suggest that a collisional cascade among solids with a bulk strength intermediate between weak ice (Leinhardt & Stewart 2012) and normal ice (Schlichting et al 2013) produces size distributions fairly similar to the size distribution of impactors on Charon. If the surface density $\Sigma$ of the protosolar nebula varies with semimajor axis $a$ as $\Sigma \approx 30~{\rm g~cm^{-2}} (a / {\rm 1~au})^{-3/2}$, the time scale for a cascade to generate an approximate equilibrium is 100-300 Myr at 45 au and 10-30 Myr at 25 au. Although it is necessary to perform more complete evolutionary calculations of the Kuiper belt, collisional cascades are a viable model for producing the size distribution of solids that impacted Charon throughout its history.