On Friday, NASA launched a mission to the distant asteroid Psyche, which has not been studied to date and has a metallic composition, which scientists believe may be the nucleus of an ancient astronomical body.
The “Psyche” probe was launched as expected at 10:19 am local time (14:19 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, by a “Falcon Heavy” rocket created by SpaceX.
“The spacecraft is on an energy-efficient path,” one commentator said during a live feed provided by NASA a few minutes after liftoff.
Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who is responsible for the team of scientific experts on the mission, said in a press conference, “Humans have previously visited planets whose composition is rocky, icy, or gaseous, but this is the first time that we will visit an asteroid with a metallic surface.”
The journey to reach Psyche will be long, as this asteroid is located in the outer part of the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. NASA’s probe will travel about 3.5 million kilometers to reach it, with expectations that it will reach the asteroid in the summer of 2029.
Because of the light reflected from its surface, scientists realize that Psyche is very dense and that its composition is mineral, perhaps with other materials such as rocks.
“We don’t know what Psyche looks like,” Elkins-Tanton said. “I often joke that it’s shaped like a potato, because potatoes come in different shapes, so I’m not wrong.”
Scientists believe that Psyche, which is more than two hundred kilometers long, may be the nucleus of an ancient celestial body whose surface was torn apart due to asteroid collisions.
Like Mars, Venus, and Mercury, Earth has a metallic core. “We will never see this core because it is too hot and deep,” Elkins-Tanton said. “Our next mission to Psyche will be the only way to see a core.”
Volcanoes, fissures and craters?
Psyche was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, at the birth of the solar system to which planet Earth belongs, and it may have witnessed volcanic eruptions, traces of which remain in the form of ancient lava flows.
It is likely that the asteroid’s contraction caused huge cracks to form as its temperature decreased.
Scientists are also looking forward to seeing what craters look like on a metallic celestial body, as the material released by the impact of asteroids may have remained frozen in the air and formed a kind of dots.
The probe will remain in orbit around Psyche for a little more than two years, with the aim of studying the asteroid while moving within several altitudes.
The probe uses three scientific tools: multi-spectral imaging devices to photograph the asteroid, spectrometers to determine its composition, and magnetometers to measure its magnetic field.
The probe will use Hall effect thrusters to move, which is the first of its kind on an interplanetary mission.
These engines will use an electric current provided by the probe’s solar panels to obtain inert gas ions (xenon gas), which will later become rapidly absorbed after passing through an electric field.
David Oh, an engineer at NASA, pointed out that these elements will have a very high speed, “five times faster than the fuel that comes out of a conventional rocket,” which will generate the necessary thrust.
He added, “This is what we heard about in the Star Wars and Star Rick films, but today we are turning the future into reality.”
The Psyche mission will also test a communication system using laser beams, which should enable the transmission of larger amounts of data than via wireless communications.
The first sample collected from an asteroid arrives in the Utah desert
