Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Professor Gareth Collins

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Professor of Planetary Science
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1518g.collins Website

 
 
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Location

 

4.83Royal School of MinesSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Raducan:2020:10.1029/2020je006466,
author = {Raducan, SD and Davison, TM and Collins, GS},
doi = {10.1029/2020je006466},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets},
pages = {1--19},
title = {Morphological diversity of impact craters on asteroid (16) Psyche: insight from numerical models},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020je006466},
volume = {125},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The asteroid (16) Psyche, target of NASA's “Psyche” mission, is thought to be one of the most massive exposed iron cores in the solar system. Earthbased observations suggest that Psyche has a metalrich surface; however, its internal structure cannot be determined from groundbased observations. Here we simulate impacts into a variety of possible target structures on Psyche and show the possible diversity in crater morphologies that the “Psyche” mission could encounter. If Psyche's interior is homogeneous, then the mission will find simple bowlshaped craters, with a depthdiameter ratio diagnostic of rock or iron. Craters will be much deeper than those on other visited asteroids and possess much more spectacular rims if the surface is dominated by metallic iron. On the other hand, if Psyche has a layered structure, the spacecraft could find craters with more complex morphologies, such as concentric or flatfloored craters. Furthermore, if ferrovolcanism occurred on Psyche, then the morphology of craters less than 2 km in diameter could be even more exotic. Based on three to four proposed large craters on Psyche's surface, model sizefrequency distributions suggest that if Psyche is indeed an exposed iron core, then the spacecraft will encounter a very old and evolved surface, that would be 4.5 Gyr old. For a rocky surface, then Psyche could be at least 3 Gyr old.
AU  - Raducan,SD
AU  - Davison,TM
AU  - Collins,GS
DO  - 10.1029/2020je006466
EP  - 19
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 2169-9097
SP  - 1
TI  - Morphological diversity of impact craters on asteroid (16) Psyche: insight from numerical models
T2  - Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020je006466
UR  - https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020JE006466
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/82648
VL  - 125
ER  -
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