The influence of gravity on granular impacts

Context. Impacts on small-body surfaces can occur naturally during cratering events or even strategically during carefully planned impact experiments, sampling maneuvers, and landing attempts. A proper interpretation of impact dynamics allows for a better understanding of the physical properties and the dynamical process of their regolith-covered surfaces and their general evolution. Aims. This work aims to first validate low-velocity, low-gravity impact simulations against experimental results, and then to discuss the observed collision behaviors in terms of a popular phenomenological collision model and a commonly referenced scaling relationship. Methods. We performed simulations using the soft-sphere discrete element method and two different codes, Chron