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On Friday ( Oct. 13)NASA ’s Psyche spacecraft blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop aSpaceXFalcon Heavy rocket .
In 2029 , after traveling 2.2 billion miles ( 3.5 billion kilometers ) , the spacecraft will come at the far side of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter , where the asteroid 16 Psyche awaits .
An illustration of the Psyche spacecraft surveying the massive, metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche.
scupper within the metal - rich asteroid ’s part debunk core are secrets of how thesolar system ’s rocky planets , include Earth , first came to exist . Here ’s everything you need to know about the Psyche charge .
What is asteroid 16 Psyche?
First spotted in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis , 16 Psyche is a alloy - rich asteroid site in the asteroid belt at a maximum distance of 370 million stat mi ( 600 million km ) from Earth .
At roughly 173 miles ( 279 km ) across at its widest point , the potato - form 16 Psyche isone of the large know asteroidsin the solar organization .
Scientists are concerned in 16 Psyche because it shows signs of being a fail satellite . Made up of an exposed iron core and out layers of metal , the asteroid might have once become the nitty-gritty of a planet as large asMars , but violent collisions with other large bodies during the solar organisation ’s organisation prevented it from doing so .
An illustration of the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche.
Other planetesimal , or small bodies that imprint the cores of planet , are expected to take many branding iron oxide , but these are missing from 16 Psyche ’s core . This leads astronomers to think that the mysterious asteroid could hint at a different form of planetary formation mechanics than the one that created Earth .
The spacecraft
Psyche is a roughly van - sized spacecraft consisting of solar arrays , a magnetometer , agamma - rayand neutron mass spectrometer , and a multispectral imager to study the asteroid . It will propel itself through space by solar electrical actuation , which practice convert sunlight to accelerate charge atomic number 54 atoms and blast them from one of its four thrusters .
Each of the four thruster operates one at a time and provides a force equivalent to what a human being would finger halt three quarters in the palm of their mitt , according to NASA .
During its journey to the asteroid , the spacecraft will also maintain contact with Earth with a state - of - the - artwork Deep Space Optical Communications experiment , which will use a laser to send mellow - bandwidth communication back to Earth .
The long journey ahead
To arrive at the asteroid , the Psyche spacecraft will travel to Mars , using the easy actuation provided by the craft ’s ion thrusters , before slingshotting around the Red Planet . This gravitation assist should activate the spacecraft to reach the asteroid by August 2029 .
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Once it has closed in on the asteroid , the ballistic capsule will begin making wide electron orbit , first scan for a planet - corresponding charismatic field with its magnetometer and then using its multispectral imager to scan the bumps and crevices of the asteroid ’s surface .
Drawing closer and closer in ever - mean orbits of the asteroid , the spacecraft will then begin using its laser to visualize out the passel and tightness of Psyche , as well as deploy its da Gamma - beam of light and neutron spectrometer to determine the asteroid ’s frame and the ingredient present on its Earth’s surface .
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