Satellies and Small Bodies Asphaug, Korycansky Nimmo,

Small bodies include the satellites of the planets, such as Europa and the Moon, and also the debris left over from solar system formation, that is comets and asteroids.

Comets and asteroids contain contain information about the very early solar system, while their surfaces are dominated by impact features. Asphaug and Korycansky have modeled the effects of such impacts in a variety of settings, including the generation of asteroid satellites, the production of crater chains on the satellites of Jupiter, and the generation of the Moon in an early giant impact. Asphaug is also the PI on a proposed Discovery mission to investigate the interior of an asteroid.

Planetary satellites are interesting because they exhibit great diversity, and are sufficiently numerous that we can start to understand the patterns observed e.g. why are some geologically active (Io, Triton), but not others? Nimmo has used surface observations to infer how these bodies have evolved over time, in particular the icy satellites Europa and Enceladus, both of which may harbour subsurface oceans.