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Detectability of early impact processing in present-day comet nuclei

Ascertain whether signatures of collisional processing of comet nuclei during early protoplanetary disk evolution are currently observable in present-day comets.

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Background

In discussing possible formation pathways for metal-bearing compositions, the authors note theoretical work suggesting comet nuclei could be processed by early impacts, but explicitly state uncertainty about whether such effects are detectable today.

Establishing the detectability of early collisional processing would impact interpretations of cometary composition, structure, and the origin of unusual metal-rich features, including those considered for 3I/ATLAS.

References

Theoretical studies propose that comet nuclei can be also processed by impacts during the early stages of the evolution of the protoplanetary disk, but it is unclear that such effects should be noticeable nowadays (Weissman et al., 2020).

— Spectrophotometric evidence for a metal-bearing, carbonaceous, and pristine interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (2511.19112 - Trigo-Rodríguez et al., 24 Nov 2025) in Section 3.2, Spectral comparison