{"id":40493,"date":"2026-03-13T23:15:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T22:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/?p=40493"},"modified":"2026-03-13T23:17:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T22:17:33","slug":"exploring-the-interior-structure-of-16-psyche-through-basin%e2%80%90scale-collisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/?p=40493","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Interior Structure of (16) Psyche Through Basin\u2010Scale Collisions<span class=\"badge-status\" style=\"background:#787878\">OPEN ACCESS<\/span>&nbsp;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Namya Baijal, Erik Asphaug, C. Adeene Denton, Martin Jutzi, Sabina Raducan, Saverio Cambioni, Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, Amanda Alexander<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, First Published: 13 March 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1029\/2025JE009231\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>LINK (OPEN ACCESS)<\/strong><\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/epdf\/10.1029\/2025JE009231\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>PDF (OPEN ACCESS)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Key Points<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>We simulate the formation of impact basins on asteroid (16) Psyche using 3D collisional models<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Psyche&#8217;s shape, interior structure, porosity, and crushing strength influence the depth of excavation and distribution of ejecta<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The major craters produced on Psyche will help constrain its interior through spacecraft observations&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"justify-text\">&#8220;Asteroid (16) Psyche, the largest member of the M\/X-type asteroids, may be the leftover core of a differentiated planetesimal. As such (16) Psyche will be explored in detail by NASA&#8217;s discovery-class Psyche mission in 2029. This will be the first mission to orbit a metal-rich asteroid, or any asteroid in the 100\u2013500 km size range. A key unresolved question, and the primary objective of the mission, is to infer whether Psyche is a core or a primordial, unmelted object. One way to constrain an asteroid&#8217;s interior is through the study of its largest basins and how that affects its morphology, depth-to-diameter ratio, and surface distribution of metal. Here, in preparation for the mission, we model the impact formation of a significant basin at Psyche&#8217;s north pole, identified in ground-based imaging. Using high-resolution Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations applied to the asteroid&#8217;s 3D shape, we show how modeling the formation of Psyche&#8217;s impact basins will constrain its interior through comparison with mission observations and may allow us to infer whether Psyche has a core. We adopt two end-member interior structures: a differentiated target with a metal core and mantle, and a mixed rock-metal homogeneous target. We demonstrate the formation of the polar crater for both end-members, and how Psyche&#8217;s porosity and strength influence the depth-diameter ratio, the final crater morphology, and the expected simple-complex crater transition.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Namya Baijal, Erik Asphaug, C. Adeene Denton, Martin Jutzi, Sabina Raducan, Saverio Cambioni, Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, Amanda Alexander Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, First Published: 13 March 2026 LINK (OPEN ACCESS)PDF (OPEN ACCESS) &#8220;Key Points&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,2495,5891,181,6320],"tags":[2496,3910,95,849,2298,270],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40495,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40493\/revisions\/40495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmaka.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}