Large craters offer clues to the origin of asteroid 16 Psyche
By University of Arizona
Even 200 years after asteroid 16 Psyche was discovered, astronomers continue to puzzle over its formation.
Psyche is the 10th-most massive asteroid in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the largest known metallic asteroid, at 140 miles in diameter. NASA’s Psyche mission will arrive in 2029 to determine its origin. Psyche may be a leftover building block of an early planet, shredded by violent collisions, or a planetary fragment that once separated into layers before losing its rocky outer mantle.
Other hypotheses suggest Psyche is an ancient remnant that either started metal-rich or became a blend of rock and metal after repeatedly smashing into other asteroids. Each scenario has different implications for the origin of planets in the early Solar System.
To investigate these possibilities, researchers at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory ran simulations to predict how a large crater near Psyche’s north pole could have formed under these competing ideas. In a study published in JGR Planets, the team outlines predictions designed to help scientists interpret the data that NASA’s Psyche mission will collect when it arrives in 2029. Coupled with spacecraft observations, the predictions may help settle the mystery of Psyche’s makeup once and for all.