TNews – NASA embarked on an extraordinary space odyssey by launching a spacecraft from Florida en route to Psyche, the largest asteroid among several metallic-rich asteroids known in our solar system. These celestial bodies are believed by scientists to be remnants of an ancient protoplanet’s core, offering invaluable insights into the formation of our planet.
Unveiling the Psyche Spacecraft
The Psyche spacecraft, neatly tucked inside the cargo bay of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, soared into the partly cloudy skies from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. The planned journey spans an impressive 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) through space, with an approximate arrival date at the asteroid set for August 2029.
This launch, showcased live on NASA TV, represents the latest in a series of recent NASA missions, all geared towards unraveling the origins of our planet, which emerged around 4.5 billion years ago. These missions involve deploying robotic spacecraft to explore asteroids – primordial remnants from the early days of our solar system.
Psyche: A Metallic Giant in the Asteroid Belt
Asteroid Psyche measures approximately 173 miles (279 km) at its widest point and resides on the outer fringes of the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter.
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The team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) plans to spend the next three to four months conducting spacecraft system checks before embarking on the interplanetary journey. This spacecraft will be powered by electric solar propulsion, a technology making its debut in an interplanetary mission.
After reaching Psyche, the spacecraft will begin a 26-month orbit, scanning the asteroid with specialized instruments designed to measure its gravity, magnetic properties, and composition.
Psyche’s Origin: Unraveling a Cosmic Mystery
According to the prevailing hypothesis, Psyche is thought to be the remnant of a baby planet that was once molten and frozen. It was subsequently shattered due to collisions with other celestial bodies in the early days of the solar system. The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance roughly three times farther than Earth, even at its closest point to our planet.
Psyche is the first of its kind to be selected for close-up study by a spacecraft. It is believed to consist mainly of iron, nickel, gold, and other metals, with a hypothetical collective monetary value estimated at an astonishing $10 quadrillion.
However, this mission has no connection to space mining, according to scientists. Its primary goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the formation of Earth and other rocky planets that coalesced around molten metal cores. Earth’s molten core is too deep and too hot to be directly studied.
