Journey to the strange metallic world of Psyche: “Until we see it up close we won’t know what it is”

2023-10-11 04:21:09
On the night of March 17, 1852, the astronomer and mathematician Annibale de Gasparis was scanning the sky. He was looking for new celestial objects. He was on a roll: in the past three years he had discovered Hygiea, Parthenope, Egeria, Irene and Eunomia, all large space rocks from the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. That night he found his sixth asteroid, the sixteenth for the entire scientific community. He was named Psyche, after the Greek goddess of the soul. He never knew how right his decision was. A century and a half later, astronomers discovered that that world had a peculiarity: it was not made of rock or ice, like the vast majority of asteroids and… See More
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