The asteroid Psyche is unlike any other. It may be a relic of a failed planet

New, two- and three-dimensional models of collisions with the asteroid Psyche, one of the largest asteroids in the Main Belt, indicate that it is metallic and porous inside, i.e. in a way it resembles a cosmic cluster of debris. This is extremely important information for the engineers preparing the Psyche mission, the launch of which is scheduled for 2022.

The asteroid (16) Psyche

It will be the first spacecraft to visit a metallic asteroid . This means that the more we learn about Psyche before the start, the better we will be able to choose the tools that will allow us to study it.

Psyche is a very interesting object because it is most likely a remnant of a planetary core that was destroyed early in its formation. If this object turns out to be mainly metal, it will be able to tell us a lot about the processes of planet formation.

Now, researchers have provided the first 3D models of the processes by which the largest impact crater on the asteroid's surface was formed. This is the first-ever study in which impact crater models are used to determine the chemical composition of an asteroid. 2D and 3D models indicate the angle at which an incoming object could hit the asteroid's surface, deforming it in a specific and predictable way depending on what it is made of.

Metals deform differently than other types of asteroid material, such as silicates. Hitting targets with a similar chemical composition to Psyche should therefore lead to the formation of craters similar to those we see on its surface.

The simulation-based animation above shows the theoretical impact scenario that could have resulted in Psyche's largest crater. In the animation, we can see how part of the surface material is ejected from the asteroid's surface as a result of a collision, and we see the various stages of crater modification.

In the early stages of crater formation, the target material behaves like a fluid. In the modification stage, the force of the target matter plays a key role in how the material that was not ejected from the asteroid falls back into the crater, says Caldwell.

The results obtained by the models agree with the estimates of Psyche's chemical composition based on observational measurements. The material of particular interest in this context is the monel that best suits the observations. Monel is an ore-based alloy from Sudbury Crater in Canada. Researchers assume that the source of the ore is the object that caused the crater to form. In other words, all ore is of extraterrestrial origin. The success of monel modeling indicates that the material from which Psyche is made behaves similar to the known extraterrestrial metals.

The Los Alamos supercomputer and the FLAG code, which has already worked well in modeling impact craters, were used to model the crater formation processes.

It's amazing what we can learn in the lab. Our supercomputers are among the most powerful in the world, and in the case of asteroid collision analysis, they are ideal for numerical modeling, which allows researchers to confirm observational data, concludes Caldwell.

(16) Psyche - what is this object

Psyche is one of the largest asteroids called Main lane. Discovered in 1852, it orbits the Sun at a distance almost three times the Earth's distance, so it takes nearly five years to orbit the Sun. It rotates around its axis in 4 hours and 12 minutes.

During radar observations, researchers found that there are no traces of either water or even water-containing minerals on it. It is largely a metallic object.

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The asteroid Psyche is unlike any other. It may be a relic of a failed planet