Elkins-Tanton Linda T, Asphaug Erik, Bell James F, Bierson Carver J, Bills Bruce G, Bottke William F, Courville Samuel W, Dibb Steven D, Jun Insoo, Lawrence David J, Marchi Simone, McCoy Timothy J, Merayo Jose M G, Oran Rona, O'Rourke Joseph G, Park Ryan S, Peplowski Patrick N, Prettyman Thomas H, Raymond Carol A, Weiss Benjamin P, Wieczorek Mark A, Zuber Maria T
School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 86387-2001 USA.
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0092 USA.
Space Sci Rev. 2022;218(3):17. doi: 10.1007/s11214-022-00880-9. Epub 2022 Apr 12.
The asteroid (16) Psyche may be the metal-rich remnant of a differentiated planetesimal, or it may be a highly reduced, metal-rich asteroidal material that never differentiated. The NASA Psyche mission aims to determine Psyche's provenance. Here we describe the possible solar system regions of origin for Psyche, prior to its likely implantation into the asteroid belt, the physical and chemical processes that can enrich metal in an asteroid, and possible meteoritic analogs. The spacecraft payload is designed to be able to discriminate among possible formation theories. The project will determine Psyche's origin and formation by measuring any strong remanent magnetic fields, which would imply it was the core of a differentiated body; the scale of metal to silicate mixing will be determined by both the neutron spectrometers and the filtered images; the degree of disruption between metal and rock may be determined by the correlation of gravity with composition; some mineralogy (e.g., modeled silicate/metal ratio, and inferred existence of low-calcium pyroxene or olivine, for example) will be detected using filtered images; and the nickel content of Psyche's metal phase will be measured using the GRNS.
小行星（16） Psyche 可能是一颗分异行星碎块中富含金属的残余部分，或者它可能是一种高度还原、富含金属且从未分异的小行星物质。美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的 Psyche 任务旨在确定 Psyche 的起源。在此，我们描述了 Psyche 在可能被植入小行星带之前可能的太阳系起源区域、能使小行星中金属富集的物理和化学过程以及可能的陨石类似物。航天器的有效载荷旨在能够区分各种可能的形成理论。该项目将通过测量任何强剩余磁场来确定 Psyche 的起源和形成，强剩余磁场意味着它是一个分异天体的核心；金属与硅酸盐混合的程度将由中子光谱仪和滤波图像共同确定；金属与岩石之间的破碎程度可通过重力与成分的相关性来确定；一些矿物学特征（例如，模拟的硅酸盐/金属比率，以及推断出的低钙辉石或橄榄石的存在等）将使用滤波图像进行检测；并且 Psyche 金属相中的镍含量将使用伽马射线中子光谱仪（GRNS）进行测量。
