New research into metal-rich asteroids reveals information about the
origins and compositions of these rare bodies that could one day be mined.


Date:
October 1, 2021
Source:
University of Arizona
Summary:
New research into metal-rich asteroids reveals information about
the origins and compositions of these rare bodies that could one
day be mined.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Metal-rich near-Earth asteroids, or NEAs, are rare, but their presence
provides the intriguing possibility that iron, nickel and cobalt could
someday be mined for use on Earth or in Space.


==========================================================================
New research, published in the Planetary Science Journal, investigated two metal-rich asteroids in our own cosmic backyard to learn more about their origins, compositions and relationships with meteorites found on Earth.

These metal-rich NEAs were thought to be created when the cores of
developing planets were catastrophically destroyed early in the solar
system's history, but little more is known about them. A team of students co-led by University of Arizona planetary science associate professor
Vishnu Reddy studied asteroids 1986 DA and 2016 ED85 and discovered
that their spectral signatures are quite similar to asteroid 16 Psyche,
the largest metal-rich body in the solar system.

Psyche, located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter rather than near Earth, is the target of NASA's Psyche mission.

"Our analysis shows that both NEAs have surfaces with 85% metal such as
iron and nickel and 15% silicate material, which is basically rock,"
said lead author Juan Sanchez, who is based at the Planetary Science
Institute. "These asteroids are similar to some stony-iron meteorites
such as mesosiderites found on Earth." Astronomers have been speculating
as to what the surface of Psyche is made of for decades. By studying
metal-rich NEAs that come close to the Earth, they hope to identify
specific meteorites that resemble Psyche's surface.

"We started a compositional survey of the NEA population in 2005, when I
was a graduate student, with the goal of identifying and characterizing
rare NEAs such as these metal-rich asteroids," said Reddy, principal investigator of the NASA grant that funded the work. "It is rewarding
that we have discovered these 'mini Psyches' so close to the Earth."
"For perspective, a 50-meter (164-foot) metallic object similar to the
two asteroids we studied created the Meteor Crater in Arizona," said
Adam Battle, who is a co-author of the paper along with fellow Lunar
and Planetary Laboratory graduate students Benjamin Sharkey and Theodore Kareta, and David Cantillo, an undergraduate student in the Department
of Geosciences.

The paper also explored the mining potential of 1986 DA and found that the amount of iron, nickel and cobalt that could be present on the asteroid
would exceed the global reserves of these metals.

Additionally, when an asteroid is catastrophically destroyed, it produces
what is called an asteroid family -- a bunch of small asteroids that
share similar compositions and orbital paths.

The team used the compositions and orbits of asteroids 1986 DA and 2016
ED85 to identify four possible asteroid families in the outer region of
the main asteroid belt, which is home to the largest reservoir of small
bodies in the inner part of the solar system. This also happens to be
the region where most of the largest known metallic asteroids including
16 Psyche reside.

"We believe that these two 'mini Psyches' are probably fragments from
a large metallic asteroid in the main belt, but not 16 Psyche itself,"
Cantillo said.

"It's possible that some of the iron and stony-iron meteorites found on
Earth could have also come from that region in the solar system too."
The paper's findings are based on observations from the NASA Infrared
Telescope Facility on the island of Hawaii. The work was funded by the
NASA Near-Earth Object Observations Program, which also funds the NASA
Infrared Telescope Facility.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Arizona. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Juan A. Sanchez, Vishnu Reddy, William F. Bottke, Adam Battle,
Benjamin
Sharkey, Theodore Kareta, Neil Pearson, David C. Cantillo. Physical
Characterization of Metal-rich Near-Earth Asteroids 6178 (1986 DA)
and 2016 ED85. The Planetary Science Journal, 2021; 2 (5): 205 DOI:
10.3847/ PSJ/ac235f ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211001130224.htm

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