Letter to the Editor

(16) Psyche: A mesosiderite-like asteroid?^⋆,⋆⋆

¹ Laboratory of Mathematics, Tampere University of Technology, PO Box 553 33101 Tampere, Finland
e-mail: matti.viikinkoski@tut.fi
² Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LAM, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, Marseille, France
³ Astronomical Institute, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, V Holešovičkách 2, 18000 Prague, Czech Republic
⁴ Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, France
⁵ Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, BT7 1NN UK
⁶ SETI Institute, Carl Sagan Center, 189 Bernado Avenue, Mountain View, CA, 94043 USA
⁷ IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Univ., Lille, France
⁸ Astronomical Observatory Institute, Faculty of Physics, A. Mickiewicz University, Sloneczna 36, 60-286 Poznan, Poland
⁹ Thirty-Meter-Telescope, 100 West Walnut St, Suite 300, Pasadena, CA, 91124 USA
¹⁰ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA, 91109 USA
¹¹ European Space Agency, ESTEC – Scientific Support Office, Keplerlaan 1, Noordwijk, 2200 AG The Netherlands
¹² Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux et Observations Spatiales, CNRS & Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Guyancourt, France
¹³ Space sciences, Technologies and Astrophysics Research Institute, Université de Liège, Allée du 6 Août 17, 4000 Liège, Belgium
¹⁴ Open University, School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, MK7 6AA UK
¹⁵ Sección Física, Departamento de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Apartado, 1761 Lima, Perú
¹⁶ Institute of Physics, University of Szczecin, Wielkopolska 15, 70-453 Szczecin, Poland
¹⁷ Center for Solar System Studies, 446 Sycamore Ave., Eaton, CO, 80615 USA
¹⁸ European Southern Observatory (ESO), Alonso de Cordova 3107, 1900 Casilla Vitacura, Santiago, Chile

Received: 15 August 2018
Accepted: 24 September 2018

Abstract

Context. Asteroid (16) Psyche is the target of the NASA Psyche mission. It is considered one of the few main-belt bodies that could be an exposed proto-planetary metallic core and that would thus be related to iron meteorites. Such an association is however challenged by both its near- and mid-infrared spectral properties and the reported estimates of its density.

Aims. Here, we aim to refine the density of (16) Psyche to set further constraints on its bulk composition and determine its potential meteoritic analog.

Methods. We observed (16) Psyche with ESO VLT/SPHERE/ZIMPOL as part of our large program (ID 199.C-0074). We used the high angular resolution of these observations to refine Psyche’s three-dimensional (3D) shape model and subsequently its density when combined with the most recent mass estimates. In addition, we searched for potential companions around the asteroid.

Results. We derived a bulk density of 3.99 ± 0.26 g cm⁻³ for Psyche. While such density is incompatible at the 3-sigma level with any iron meteorites (∼7.8 g cm⁻³), it appears fully consistent with that of stony-iron meteorites such as mesosiderites (density ∼4.25 g cm⁻³). In addition, we found no satellite in our images and set an upper limit on the diameter of any non-detected satellite of 1460 ± 200 m at 150 km from Psyche (0.2% × R_Hill, the Hill radius) and 800 ± 200 m at 2000 km (3% × R_Hill).

Conclusions. Considering that the visible and near-infrared spectral properties of mesosiderites are similar to those of Psyche, there is merit to a long-published initial hypothesis that Psyche could be a plausible candidate parent body for mesosiderites.