Impacts may provide heat for aqueous alteration and organic solid formation on asteroid parent bodies

Abstract Chemical reactions on asteroid parent bodies, such as aqueous alteration and the formation of organic solids, require a heat source. Radioactive decay in interiors these bodies is generally considered most important source, but impact-generated heating also likely to play role. Here we present high-velocity impact cratering experiments using thermocouples embedded target material directly measure spatial temporal evolution temperature throughout each experiment. We find that maximum below crater floor scales with distance from point, while duration rise scaled by thermal diffusion time. use numerical modelling suggest that, at distances within 2 astronomical units, impacts producing craters >20 km radius can facilitate crater, those which produce 1 support solid formation.