Wow, what a JGR-Planets (Journal of Geophysical Research…) for Mar 2026 (vol. 131 #3):
Baijal, N. Asphaug, E. Denton, C. A. et al. Exploring the Interior Structure of (16) Psyche Through Basin-Scale Collisions 2025JE009231
Pamerleau, I. F. Sori, M. M. Scully, J. E. C. Asymmetric Crater Relaxation on an Ice-Rich Ceres Driven by Insolation 2025JE009374
Gemma, M. E. Shirley, K. A. Glotch, T. D. et al. Effects of Particle Size, Temperature, and Metal Content on VNIR Spectra of Ordinary Chondrite Meteorites in a Simulated Asteroid Environment 2025JE008963
Anand, A. Carroll-Nellenback, J. Blackman, E. G. et al. Early Solar Wind and Dynamo Magnetic Field Topology Predictions for (16) Psyche and Other Asteroids 2025JE009219
Christoffersen, R. Loeffler, M. J. Kanee, S. et al. Experimental Hypervelocity Dust Impacts in Olivine-Multiscale Insights Into Microcrater Shock and Melting Effects From Coordinated SEM… 2025JE009257
(16) Psyche… what more do I have to say? A hundred-km-scale ball of (mostly) metal, just sitting there in space. We could simply wait for the Psyche mission to see what’s there, but it’s also fun to speculate beforehand. It also serves to inform our inflight science operations.
Asteroid (1) Ceres, also interesting, but ice-rich, not metallic. You may recognize the name “Scully,” and I don’t mean the TV detective. Dr. Jennifer Scully had investigated hydration and flow at (4) Vesta, and now we turn to Ceres and its water.
We see asteroids via probes, and we get asteroid pieces via meteor falls. But how do we link parent and child? Meteorites form crusts we can polish off, but asteroids have space weathering, which we can’t evade. We can only compensate. Gemma et al. do their best to find asteroid-meteorite linkages.
Speaking of space weathering, many asteroids have partial or substantial olivine content- it’s a common silicate mineral. Weathering of that olivine by micrometeor impacts is one of the things we (including Gemma et al., and now Christoffersen et al.) are studying.