Psyche: Key points about the metallic asteroid mission

A NASA probe visited the asteroid Psyche, which is almost entirely made of metal. The spacecraft will travel about 3.5 billion kilometers from the Kennedy Space Center to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It will come sometime in 2029 to finally reveal the nature of this strange space body.

In the words of Lindy Elkins-Danton, principal investigator of the Psych project, the mission’s mission can be summed up as “exploring outer space to explore inner space.” Psyche is a 226-kilometer-wide body and contains at least 12 trillion kilograms of metals, including iron, nickel, and gold. It is the first space object made mainly of metal. Because of its prominent features, scientists hypothesize that Mana may be the core of a failed or destroyed planet.

In the solar system, there are only a series of structures of similar proportions and compositions to the soul: the centers of Earth, Moon, Mars and Mercury. Although geologists have explored the planet’s core for decades, they have been unable to make contact. Arriving in space will mark the first time humans have come face-to-face with the core of a planet. If this hypothesis turns out to be correct, the study will have a unique opportunity to study the process of planet formation and evolution. On the other hand, if the results indicate that it is not an emergent core, Psyche is a never-before-seen Solar System object. Either possibility excites the scientific community.

The probe is equipped with a magnetometer. It will look for evidence of some ancient magnetic field in the body of the main asteroid belt. It has a neutron and gamma ray spectrometer that will check the asteroid’s chemical composition. Finally, a multispectral imager will provide information on its mineral composition.