The spacecraft that will have to study the celestial body will leave in August 2022 but will not arrive before the end of 2025: the goal is to understand which metals it contains and to gather information on how it was formed
Our solar system still holds many secrets and NASA is pointing to one of these. The American Space Agency has in fact illustrated the mission starting in August 2022 to discover more of the asteroid Psyche, positioned between Mars and Jupiter at a distance of 2400 billion kilometers from Earth. The decision to gather more information on this celestial body with a diameter of over 200 kilometers lies in its still mysterious composition and origin. From what could be detected through the Hubble telescope (which will be replaced by the just launched James Webb) and the way it reflects light, the asteroid should be rich in metal inside.
The core to be discovered
A not insignificant detail because if this composition were confirmed, Psyche would represent an example of the first generation of early nuclei within our solar system, as pointed out by the head of the mission Lindy Elkins-Tanton. You need to clearly determine if inside there is nickel, iron or a mix of metals: in any case it is a potential mine of priceless value at the moment, in the literal sense of the term. Although figures in the order of one million billion dollars have been circulated, everything remains to be verified on the basis of the type of metal present and its real density.
The mystery of the origin
The mission of the spacecraft equipped with equipment to measure magnetic fields and to make spectrographs to understand more of this asteroid will focus on this. It also remains to be established how Psyche was formed: among the hypotheses the possibility that it was the nucleus of a planetism, that is, the embryo of a future planet, or has originated as a never dissolved primordial material. Answers that won’t arrive in a short period of time. If the spacecraft’s departure is scheduled for August 2022, it will arrive no earlier than the end of 2025.
December 31, 2021 (change January 2, 2022 | 15:53)
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