Planetesimal Collisions During the Birth of the Solar System

Collisions between small bodies were frequent and energetic events during planet formation.  Our recent work has shown that such events likely played important roles in the early physical and chemical evolution of asteroids and meteorite parent bodies.  By understanding the consequences of such events, we can constrain the early dynamical evolution of the solar system and models for terrestrial planet formation.

http://geosci.uchicago.edu/people/ciesla.shtml