The Psyche Mission at Nasa

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 Psyche Mission

Hi everyone, today I am going to talk about an important opportunity and mission to everyone. So let's talk over it, today!

Only an Illustration 

Introduction

This mission explores a class of objects that we haven’t explored in astronomy, which is asteroids. This object is in the Asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter). Scientists and astronomers studied this asteroid in different forms (infrared, visible wavelengths, and also radar) Well, this potato-shaped rich metal asteroid is a lot to learn about! 



An Important Opportunity 

This mission is very important because it leads to an important opportunity, studying the core. Well, if we learned Earth’s core it would be too deep, too hot, and the instruments would melt, but Psyche could do the job. 16 Psyche is actually an asteroid, but also a cooled, iron core. It is a wonderful opportunity to learn a core we can relate to another core. 

The Mission

In August 2022 NASA will launch a probe to explore this asteroid. This exploration leads to exploring a world of the unknown and also to studying the iron core that can relate to Earth's core. The Psyche space probe (NASA's probe) is atop the Falcon Heavy (SpaceX's rocket). The Falcon Heavy (SpaceX's spacecraft) is going to travel  235 million miles - 309 million miles from Earth, so this asteroid should be in the Asteroid belt (middle of Mars and Jupiter). After a four-year journey, the Psyche probe is going to reach the asteroid around January 2026. Two years after studying this core, it is going to leave back to Earth.

About This Asteroid

16 Psyche is a sizeable M-type asteroid that was discovered on March 17th, 1852 by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis. I call this the “Metal Potato” because it is shaped like somewhat a potato and is made out of metal. Its worth is 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000).  This asteroid is made out of nickel and other metals, too! 

Thank you!
-Akshaya Dhathri Bandari 

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