Introduction to the special section on results from the 6th Catastrophic Disruption Workshop

摘要

Catastrophic disruption is the most important process in the lives of many Solar System bodies. Although we naturally tend to consider the process as the destroyer of worlds, for very many small bodies catastrophic disruption was the very crucible of their birth. Colli-sional processes have then shaped the Solar System. It is the study of the processes and products associated with the breakup of worlds that brought together some 40 scientists from around the world in Cannes, France 9-11 June, 2003 for the 6th International Workshop on Catastrophic Disruption in the Solar System. The first workshop in what was to develop into this continuing series of meetings was held in Pisa in 1984. Other workshops followed: Belgrade in 1987, Kyoto in 1990, Gubbio in 1993, and Mt. Hood in 1998. Over the years spanning these workshops we have seen significant advances in observational studies providing evidence for and constraints on the extent of catastrophic disruption, laboratory studies of cratering and disruptive impacts, and numerical techniques for simulating the various mechanisms resulting in the breakup of planetary bodies. As a result of the great excitement of the community of researchers working in this field, the five years since the last workshop have been no different.