‘Cupid’ takes aim at sweet 16
ASTEROIDS have been very much in the news lately. On October 21, NASA collected a sample of the asteroid Bennu, and it turned out that, in a way, this went too well. The collecting canister called TAGSAM was overfilled, and some rocks were preventing the mylar cover from closing, causing some samples to escape.
However, last week NASA confirmed that the samples have been successfully stowed in the Sample Return Capsule with a minimal loss of material. Its journey back to Earth will begin in March, and the capsule will re-enter over the Utah desert in 2023.
With the great success at Bennu, a lot of attention has turned to an upcoming asteroid mission by NASA, this time to one called Psyche, which is about 220km in diameter. It is a metal-rich asteroid that undoubtedly holds clues about the formation of solar system bodies. The spacecraft will be launched in 2022 and will study the asteroid at close range in 2026-27.
Asteroids are rocky objects orbiting the sun. A large number of them are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. All are smaller than any of the planets. The largest, Ceres( also called a dwarf planet ), is a little under 1000 km across.
Though many space endeavours get delayed for one reason or another, in 2017 the launch of the Psyche spacecraft was actually brought forward from 2023 to 2022. It will be launched on a Space X Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, and will arrive at the asteroid in 2026 after a fly-by of Mars in 2023. The original 2023 launch plan would have meant the spacecraft taking four years longer to arrive at its destination.
It is unlikely that Psyche has always been as it is now. Asteroids come in different types, and this is reflected in the different kinds of meteorites that we find on the Earth’s surface. The general idea is that as asteroids formed, the heavy materials sank to the middle to form a dense core. Later, when such an object was smashed into pieces as a result of a collision, this separated it into its core and the less dense surroundings.
The really exciting aspect of this mission is that Psyche is
likely to be an exposed core made of nickel and iron — the central, dense part of a previously larger body. As NASA has pointed out, the core of the body on which we live—Earth — is not accessible to us, so studying Psyche may tell us more about not just that asteroid, but also Earth and other planets.
However, I feel quite disappointed that so many media reports about Psyche, and the mission to study it, have concentrated on the value in dollars of the asteroid. In particular, the figure of ten thousand quadrillion dollars has been mentioned. Though asteroid mining is likely to be an important thing for the future, there should be more focus on the scientific importance of the mission.
At least one media outlet has run a story that Psyche was discovered by NASA, using the Hubble Space Telescope. That report is 168 years in error!
Psyche was the 16th asteroid to be discovered, so its name is often written as “16 Psyche’’, in accordance with a long-established convention.It was spotted in March 1852 by the astronomer Annibale de Gasparis (1819-1892), who was Professor of Astronomy at the University of Naples. Between 1849 and 1865, de Gas paris discovered a total of nine asteroids, which appeared then, as they do now, as points of light moving against the starry backdrop.
In mythology, Psyche was a beautiful maiden whose name meant “soul’’. She was married to Cupid, though the story says that he visited her only at night, and that she could not actually see him.
In 2026, the a steroid Psyche will have a companion of a different kind. Its “Cupid ’’ will be its first visitor from Earth, spending 21 months studying Psyche from orbit. I can’t wait to view the first pictures.