NASA planning first-of-its-kind mission to rare asteroid
By
Chaffin Mitchell, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Nov 28, 2020 4:49 PM EDT
A single asteroid may be a whole new reason to race through space.
A giant metallic asteroid, about three times farther away from the sun than the Earth, has caught the attention of scientists and astronomers across the planet since 1852 — but now NASA has plans to travel to the rare, expensive find.
Scientists wonder whether this asteroid, named 16 Psyche, could be an exposed core of an early planet, once possibly as large as Mars, that lost its rocky outer layers after countless collisions billions of years ago. Scientists have numerous other theories for how 16 Psyche could have formed.
Astronomers have studied 16 Psyche in visible and infrared wavelengths, as well as radar, and have found that the asteroid’s shape somewhat resembles a potato.
Artist's concept of the asteroid 16 Psyche, which is thought to be a stripped planetary core. Maxar/ASU/P. Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech
The extremely valuable piece of space debris, which is one of the most massive objects floating in our solar system’s asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is said to be worth an astounding $10,000,000,000,000,000,000. That is $10 quintillion, a financial amount greater than the world's total gross domestic product (GDP).
The reason this intriguing asteroid is worth so much money is that it is unlike most other asteroids that have rocky or icy bodies, NASA said. Scientists believe the asteroid is composed mostly of metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth’s core.
“We’ve seen meteorites that are mostly metal, but Psyche could be unique in that it might be an asteroid that is totally made of iron and nickel,” Tracy Becker, a researcher with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said in a statement. Becker was an author of a study on the asteroid that published earlier this fall.
This means this asteroid may represent a scale model of the Earth’s core as it existed during planetary accretion, before gaining enough mass to become a planet. Psyche is the only known metallic corelike body currently floating close enough for us to access, according to Extreme Tech.
“What makes Psyche and the other asteroids so interesting is that they’re considered to be the building blocks of the solar system,” Becker said.
The asteroid travels around the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter at a distance ranging from 235 million to 309 million miles from the sun. Psyche takes about five Earth years to complete one orbit of the sun, but only a bit over four hours to rotate once on its axis (a Psyche “day”), NASA explained.
Observations indicate that its dimensions are 173 miles by 144 miles, by 117 miles. Its average diameter is about 140 miles — about 1/16 the diameter of Earth’s moon or about the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego.
NASA is planning to launch a spacecraft to study the asteroid in 2022. However, it will be several years beyond that until researchers learn more specific details about the asteroid because the spacecraft won't arrive until early 2026.
An artist's concept of the Psyche spacecraft, which will conduct a direct exploration of an asteroid thought to be a stripped planetary core. Image Maxar/ASU/P. Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The Psyche mission will be the first mission to investigate a world of metal rather than of rock and ice,” the NASA website says. “Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets.”
With a planned orbit that will last for 21 months, the spacecraft will map and study 16 Psyche’s properties to understand whether Psyche is a core or unmelted material, as well as charting the topography of the asteroid and determine how it was formed in comparison to the Earth. They hope studying the asteroid will help them better understand Earth’s core.
“To understand what really makes up a planet and to potentially see the inside of a planet is fascinating. Once we get to Psyche, we’re really going to understand if that’s the case, even if it doesn’t turn out as we expect. Any time there’s a surprise, it’s always exciting," Becker said.
Studying 16 Psyche could provide the opportunity to learn more about an object that is akin to the inside of planets like Earth and unveil secrets of the solar system, researchers say.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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News / Astronomy
NASA planning first-of-its-kind mission to rare asteroid
By Chaffin Mitchell, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Nov 28, 2020 4:49 PM EDT
A single asteroid may be a whole new reason to race through space.
A giant metallic asteroid, about three times farther away from the sun than the Earth, has caught the attention of scientists and astronomers across the planet since 1852 — but now NASA has plans to travel to the rare, expensive find.
Scientists wonder whether this asteroid, named 16 Psyche, could be an exposed core of an early planet, once possibly as large as Mars, that lost its rocky outer layers after countless collisions billions of years ago. Scientists have numerous other theories for how 16 Psyche could have formed.
Astronomers have studied 16 Psyche in visible and infrared wavelengths, as well as radar, and have found that the asteroid’s shape somewhat resembles a potato.
Artist's concept of the asteroid 16 Psyche, which is thought to be a stripped planetary core. Maxar/ASU/P. Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech
The extremely valuable piece of space debris, which is one of the most massive objects floating in our solar system’s asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is said to be worth an astounding $10,000,000,000,000,000,000. That is $10 quintillion, a financial amount greater than the world's total gross domestic product (GDP).
The reason this intriguing asteroid is worth so much money is that it is unlike most other asteroids that have rocky or icy bodies, NASA said. Scientists believe the asteroid is composed mostly of metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth’s core.
“We’ve seen meteorites that are mostly metal, but Psyche could be unique in that it might be an asteroid that is totally made of iron and nickel,” Tracy Becker, a researcher with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said in a statement. Becker was an author of a study on the asteroid that published earlier this fall.
This means this asteroid may represent a scale model of the Earth’s core as it existed during planetary accretion, before gaining enough mass to become a planet. Psyche is the only known metallic corelike body currently floating close enough for us to access, according to Extreme Tech.
“What makes Psyche and the other asteroids so interesting is that they’re considered to be the building blocks of the solar system,” Becker said.
The asteroid travels around the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter at a distance ranging from 235 million to 309 million miles from the sun. Psyche takes about five Earth years to complete one orbit of the sun, but only a bit over four hours to rotate once on its axis (a Psyche “day”), NASA explained.
Observations indicate that its dimensions are 173 miles by 144 miles, by 117 miles. Its average diameter is about 140 miles — about 1/16 the diameter of Earth’s moon or about the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego.
NASA is planning to launch a spacecraft to study the asteroid in 2022. However, it will be several years beyond that until researchers learn more specific details about the asteroid because the spacecraft won't arrive until early 2026.
An artist's concept of the Psyche spacecraft, which will conduct a direct exploration of an asteroid thought to be a stripped planetary core. Image Maxar/ASU/P. Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The Psyche mission will be the first mission to investigate a world of metal rather than of rock and ice,” the NASA website says. “Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets.”
With a planned orbit that will last for 21 months, the spacecraft will map and study 16 Psyche’s properties to understand whether Psyche is a core or unmelted material, as well as charting the topography of the asteroid and determine how it was formed in comparison to the Earth. They hope studying the asteroid will help them better understand Earth’s core.
Related:
“To understand what really makes up a planet and to potentially see the inside of a planet is fascinating. Once we get to Psyche, we’re really going to understand if that’s the case, even if it doesn’t turn out as we expect. Any time there’s a surprise, it’s always exciting," Becker said.
Studying 16 Psyche could provide the opportunity to learn more about an object that is akin to the inside of planets like Earth and unveil secrets of the solar system, researchers say.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo