Besides Science, there are asteroidal works in Science Advances. In the 25 Jun (vol. 11 #26) issue:
Jupiter Cheng, H. C. Klimczak, C. Matsuyama, I. Reorientation and despinning of 4 Vesta formed the Divalia Fossae ads7984
Even before the Dawn probe, there were hints. Vesta has a gigantic basin excavated in its South pole region, about as big as Vesta itself. On closer examination, the Dawn images showed that this is actually cratering by two impacts, coincidentally striking at nearly the same place. Associated with the impact basin, grooved terrain (fossae) runs around Vesta at its equatorial zones.
The simplest assumption is that, on forming the impact craters, material slumped back down into their bowls. This slumping motion caused the crust around the craters to open up, forming the fossae. But does this assumption hold? These authors disagree. On closer closer examination, neither of the two mega-craters lines up exactly with the pole of Vesta. When material is excavated at this magnitude, the shift in mass causes the poles to move, as Vesta attempts to re-balance itself. In turn, a shift in the poles puts the equatorial regions of the body into a new stress state. Vesta’s fossae, this paper claims, did not form within hours, as the crater rims slumped inward. The ridges formed over geologic timescales, as a spinning Vesta altered its polar positions, and altered the loads on this rim material.
Regardless of how, exactly, the surface of Vesta was shaped, this is an interesting snapshot of processes at work. Asteroids are not passive and inert, and I don’t just mean initial impacts. Crustal motions on enormous Vesta appear alongside gravel flow and sorting on tiny Itokawa. In between, we have equatorial ridges on Ryugu- and Bennu-sized bodies, forming their top shapes. Asteroids are geophysics experiments, on multiple scales, with multiple causes and multiple outcomes.