Revisiting Dimorphos formation: A pyramidal regime perspective and application to Dinkinesh’s satellite

Abstract

Dimorphos’ oblate shape challenges formation models. Landslides on Didymos, induced by YORP effect, probably created a debris ring from which Dimorphos would have formed. Nonetheless, ring-derived satellites typically form with a prolate lemon shape. In light of the newest Dimorphos shape model, we revisit our previous work, Madeira et al. (2023a), and conducted new 1D simulations with material deposition in an extended region from 1.0 to 1.5 Didymos radii. An instantaneous landslide leads to a fast formation of a prolate Dimorphos directly from the ring. Now, if Didymos progressively deposits mass, Dimorphos grows through low-velocity impacts with large impactor-to-target mass ratio (pyramidal regime growth). Even during rapid, day-scale depositions, Dimorphos experiences one of these impacts, while for slower depositions, the satellite formation is primarily via pyramidal impacts. This process might reshape the satellite into an oblate shape (Leleu et al., 2018) or even in a contact-binary shape, a scenario worthy of investigation that should be studied in the future with more suitable tools. Our conclusions can be applied to Dinkinesh’s satellite, recently discovered by NASA’s Lucy mission.