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Science – Latest news, videos and background reports from science and research.

Curiosities, Science

Why the Solution to the Drake Equation is Scary No Matter the Answer | What is Drake’s Law?

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Intelligent life is an extremely unlikely certainty, but it has occurred on Earth. Once an event has occurred, the probability of that event is 100%, no matter how unlikely it seemed at first.

The Drake Equation
#drakeequation #astrum #aliens

Life on planet Earth comes in many shapes and sizes, and we generally know what we mean by life. Life is any system capable of feeding, metabolizing, excreting, breathing, moving, growing, reproducing, and responding to external stimuli.

Although certain characteristics are fairly universal to living things here on Earth, we must be careful how we define life. For example, if an alien were able to exist by pumping liquid methane through its body instead of water, would it no longer be a living being?

To reach that level, a civilization would need a star to orbit, a planet that suits it, a way to compete with other organisms for resources, and a way to survive without being wiped out by a freak meteorite impact.

Frank Drake pointed out that the same logic that can be used to calculate the number of students in a school can be used to calculate the number of civilizations in our galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable.

Suppose their planets are covered with lava or have no atmosphere or water. In this case, it is unlikely that life will evolve there.

Suppose you combine the fraction of planets that could host life with the fraction of intelligent life. In this case, you can predict how many alien civilizations we would see in the night sky.

R* is the rate at which stars suitable for the development of life are born

Scientists can predict how many stars form in the Milky Way galaxy each year, so we can use this to estimate how many alien civilizations we might reasonably see in the night sky.

Fp is easy to solve because we know that 90% of stars have planets. But only 300 million of them are at a reasonable distance from their stars and have the right mix of elements to support life.

There are two ways to estimate the number of life origins on Earth: Either we assume that life arose once the planet cooled sufficiently, or we assume that all life descended from a common ancestor.

Life on Earth may have arisen multiple times. However, the first life was more evolved and displaced the newly evolved simple bacteria to extinction. Thus, the probability of life on Earth becoming intelligent is very low.

I think that 70% of intelligent races will reach the point where they can communicate with other races. Since humans are unintentionally chatting with the universe, I think that number is probably much higher.

We won’t know how long our race will survive until we all die out, but the longer we are able to survive, the more likely we will continue to survive.

Based on these assumptions, there are 0 other civilizations in our galaxy. Let’s assume that the emergence of life and intelligence is certain. In this case, there are nine other civilizations in our galaxy.

According to the Drake equation, the sky could be completely silent or teeming with alien life. The more we can refine these numbers, the more confident we become about our chances of finding extraterrestrial civilizations.

Conclusions

The Drake equation is a tool used to estimate the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy.

While its exact significance is still being debated, the equation highlights the importance of factors like population size and lifetime in determining the likelihood of intelligent life forms.

In other words, it reminds us that there are many variables at play when it comes to finding extraterrestrial life — and that we may not be alone in the universe after all.

Science, Technology

Scientists’ New Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion Changes Everything

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Scientists have achieved a significant milestone in their quest to create a workable nuclear fusion technology. What does this mean for how we might produce electricity in the future?

Nuclear fission and fusion are processes that modify the nuclei of atoms to release energy. For example, fission can split uranium into smaller nuclei, and Barium and Krypton can be joined by fusion to produce helium.
Nuclear fusion breakthrough 2022.
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Both fission and fusion require energy to start, but you must get more energy out than you put in. The concept of Mass energy Equivalence can be used to explain this, as every item with a mass also possesses intrinsic energy.

New Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion

The ideal energy source would be nuclear fusion, but it is too difficult to perform on Earth. In addition, fission reactions need less harsh circumstances than fusion reactions, which require forcing positively charged nuclei close enough to fuse.

The sun can create fusion energy because of its size and high temperature, but a tiny nuclear reactor on Earth cannot produce such pressures and temperatures. So instead, a Tokamak uses strong magnets to confine plasma fuel for fusion at extreme temperatures.

The Jet Laboratory has made headlines for producing more fusion energy than its own record from 1997 by combining two different forms of hydrogen. The experiments support design decisions made for a larger fusion reactor currently being built in France.

A coalition of international governments, including those from Eu member states, the U.s, China, and Russia, are supporting the Eta facility in Southern France, which is anticipated to be the last stage in establishing nuclear fusion’s viability.

Why does fusion release more energy than fission?

Fusion is the process by which light elements combine to create heavy elements. Fusion is the opposite of fission, which is the splitting of an atomic nucleus. Fission produces large quantities of radioactive waste while fusion does not. Fusion is the source of all the energy we see in stars, including our own Sun.

According to the fusion theory, energy can be released by compacting atomic nuclei together rather than dividing them, as in the fission reactions that fuel existing nuclear power plants. The Joint European Taurus Jet has been at the forefront of this fusion method for almost 40 years.

This is a stunning result because it demonstrated the greatest amount of energy output from the fusion reactions of any device in history. If the same conditions and guidelines are followed for Eta, ten times the energy input may be released.

Despite the promising development in the realm of nuclear fusion, commercial fusion reactors are still many decades away. However, if research is fruitful, nuclear fusion might become widely accepted.

What is the difference between fission and fusion?
Fission vs. Fusion: What’s the Difference? – U.S. Department of Energy

Both fission and fusion produce enormous amounts of energy from atoms.

Fission occurs when a neutron strikes a larger atom, forcing it to excite and split into two smaller atoms. This process produces a huge amount of energy that is used to heat water into steam.

Fusion occurs when two atoms merge to form a heavier atom, for example, when two hydrogen atoms fuse to form a helium atom. This produces huge amounts of energy and no radioactive products.

A brief explanation of nuclear energy

Three particles make up an atom:

  • Protons
  • Neutrons
  • Electrons

Nuclear energy can be released when the bonds holding the nucleus together are broken, which is called nuclear fission.

In nuclear fission, uranium atoms are split apart by neutrons, releasing energy. This energy is used to power nuclear power plants.

The fusion of atoms is the process by which they combine to form a larger atom and is the source of energy in the sun and stars.

Uranium is a nonrenewable energy source, even though it is found in rocks worldwide. So instead, nuclear power plants use U-235, which is relatively rare, as fuel.

The future of nuclear energy

Future generations will require a much larger energy supply, especially clean electricity generation. Nuclear power can provide this energy in an environmentally friendly way.

Global population and economic growth, along with rapid urbanization, will increase energy demand. Therefore, reducing greenhouse gas emissions while meeting growing energy demands is challenging.

Studies have shown nuclear energy is a low-emission source of electricity. Additionally, nuclear power is the world’s second-biggest source of low-carbon electricity.

Reports on future energy supply suggest that growth in nuclear power is required. Alongside the growth in other forms of low-carbon power generation, to create a sustainable future energy system.

Astronomy, Curiosities, Space

What is the deepest picture of the universe?

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The latest Hubble discoveries are astonishing! Just look at this newly formed giant exoplanet from the constellation Auriga, which is nine times the mass of Jupiter. How about this breathtaking image of a head-on collision between two galaxies known collectively as Arp 143?

They passed through each other, causing a gigantic triangular firestorm with thousands of stars bursting into life. But the telescope could capture much bigger events. Its images changed astronomers’ view of many secrets of the cosmos. Hubble even became a time machine, allowing scientists to see into the past of our universe.

What other astonishing images did the telescope take? And how did a single image taken by Hubble change science once and for all?
How was the eXtreme Deep Field image captured? Hubble is acquiring a new target

Hubble telescope deep space image

To allow us to see deep space, the creators of the Hubble Space Telescope [HST] had to work hard. The need for an orbital observatory was discussed back in the seventies. Scientists wanted to get clearer images of deep space than those taken from Earth. Unfortunately, our atmosphere makes observations difficult by absorbing and distorting light. We’re going to show you some more incredible images, but first… a little quick history of Hubble.

In 1977, the U.S. Congress authorized the construction of a space telescope with the help of NASA. They decided to name it after the outstanding astronomer Edwin Hubble.

The most difficult thing was to make the huge observatory mirror. It was constructed of heat-resistant glass with incredibly thin but durable coatings – a layer of aluminum 65 [nm] nanometers thick protected with a magnesium fluoride layer 25 [nm] nanometers thick.

The entire space telescope turned out to be nearly the size of a school bus. Its primary mirror has a weight of 827 kilograms [1,825 lbs] and has a diameter of 2.4 meters [7.8 ft]. This mirror captures light from a space object and reflects it onto a secondary mirror 0.3 meters [12 inches] in diameter. This smaller mirror was placed in the optical tube.

It reflects light through a hole in the main mirror, forming an image in the telescope. From there it is sent to scientific instruments. At the time of Hubble’s launch, there were six such instruments. These are wide-angle and planetary cameras equipped with a set of 48 light filters to highlight light spectra. The wide-angle one has a large field of view, and the planetary one made it possible to greatly increase the observation points.

Another device, a high-resolution spectrograph, was designed to operate in the ultraviolet range. With its help, the telescope can see dim objects captured by a special camera. The High-Speed Photometer [HSP] can observe variable stars and other objects with varying brightness.

And the Fine Guidance Sensors [FGS] record changes in the position of the object. Scientific instruments were located in the tail section of the HST.

The Hubble Space Telescope is equipped with six gyroscopes, four reaction wheels, two main computers, two wing-like solar arrays, and four antennas. It consumes an average of 2,100 watts of power per day and orbits the Earth every 95 minutes.

Astronomers were thrilled for Hubble to be ready for the launch, but when the Space Shuttle Discovery took off with the telescope, the images were blurry. Spacewalking astronauts fixed the telescope during four servicing missions.

Hubble has been scanning the Universe for over 30 years, and scientists have transformed its images into color.

Hubble Ultra-Deep Field image

In 1995, astronomers used Hubble to study a piece of dark sky over the constellation Ursa Major. They found over 1,500 galaxies at various stages in their evolution, including some that were born during the infancy of our universe.

This is how the Hubble Deep Field was created. But it didn’t end there. In 2004, based on the first version, the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field image was made, containing an estimated 10,000 galaxies. The snapshot contains galaxies of various ages, including the most distant red dim galaxies. Scientists believe they were born during the infancy of our universe when it was just about 800 million years old.

In 2012, astronomers unveiled the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, which was assembled by combining 10 years of the telescope’s data.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the constellation Fornax, created using Hubble Space Telescope data from 2003 and 2004. It contains about 5,500 galaxies, including many faint galaxies that are one ten-billionth the brightness of what the human eye can see.

Hubble’s two premier cameras captured 2,000 images of the same field of sky over 50 days to create the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (XDF). The XDF allows scientists to explore further back in time than ever before.

Astronomy, Space

Webb Space Telescope’s First Full-Color Images

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This Week at NASA! The much-anticipated release of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data is targeted for July 12 at 10:30 a.m. EDT, during a live broadcast from our Goddard Space Flight Center.

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That show will be available on NASA TV, the NASA app, the agency’s website, and various social media platforms. As each image is released, it will simultaneously be posted to social media and to our website at: nasa.gov/webbfirstimages. These first images will demonstrate Webb at its full power, ready to begin its mission to unfold the infrared universe.

After experiencing post-launch communications issues on July 4, teams for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE mission have re-established contact with the spacecraft.

The team has determined that an improperly formatted command sent to the spacecraft’s radio caused the issues. Data received from the spacecraft indicate that it is in good health, and it operated safely on its own while it was out of contact with Earth. As originally planned, CAPSTONE is still expected to arrive to its lunar orbit later this year on Nov. 13. The mission will test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit for Gateway, a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of our Artemis program.

On July 2, the Space Launch System, or SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft for the uncrewed Artemis I mission completed the four-mile journey from launch pad 39B to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. In the coming weeks, teams will make repairs, and perform checkouts and activities before returning SLS and Orion to the pad. Currently targeted for launch no earlier than August 2022, the Artemis I flight test to the Moon will allow NASA to check out rocket and spacecraft systems before astronauts fly to the Moon on Artemis II.

Engineers recently completed the first fully integrated powered testing of the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, or TEMPO instrument on the Intelsat IS40e satellite. TEMPO is currently targeted to launch in January 2023.

From its geostationary orbit, it will take air quality observations at an unprecedented spatial resolution.

Its measurements will reach from Puerto Rico and Mexico to northern Canada, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, encompassing the entire lower 48 states of the U.S. After analyzing data from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s sample collection “TAG event” at asteroid Bennu in October 2020, scientists were surprised to learn that the spacecraft’s arm sank almost half a meter into the asteroid.

This was far deeper than expected and confirmed that Bennu’s surface is incredibly weak.

It turns out that the surface material on Bennu is so loosely packed that stepping onto the asteroid might feel a bit like stepping into one of those pits filled with plastic balls that you might see at a kids’ play area. O-REx collected a handful of material and kicked up roughly six tons of loose rock during the TAG event. It will return its sample of Bennu to Earth in September 2023.

Curiosities, Science

Studying the Brain with Quantum Mechanics?

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Some psychologists think that the mathematical tools of quantum mechanics could help them understand human behavior. They don’t think that our brains actually function at the quantum level but that the statistics of quantum mechanics could help them predict human behavior.
Quantum mechanics may not seem like it has anything to do with human psychology, but some psychologists are starting to borrow concepts from the field to help make human behavior more predictable. SciShow Psych

Statistics can help us understand the big picture even when we don’t know all the lower-level details, like how a group of people will vote or how the brain selects certain details to remember and others to forget.

Psychologists have been exploring whether or not quantum mechanics can be used to help understand the brain. They’ve found that quantum cognition models are already performing as well or better than classical models at predicting some kinds of human behavior.

The classical cognition model doesn’t explain why subjects in the coin-flip experiment didn’t want to play again if they didn’t know whether they’d won or lost. However, the double-slit experiment shows that in the quantum world, simply not knowing can produce a totally unexpected result.

Scientists use quantum probability theory to predict human decision-making, even if we don’t understand precisely why. For example, they were able to use this theory to correctly predict people’s decisions in the coin-flip experiment, even when the classical model failed.

Human behavior

The order of questions you ask someone can affect the answer they give; for example, if you ask how they got along with their sister after they’ve gotten into a fight. Quantum mechanics can explain this by making the basic math seem more complicated.

Researchers studied 70 national surveys and used quantum-inspired math to make predictions about how the order of the questions would affect the answers. The predictions were right, and the results proved them right.

Human behavior can sometimes seem unpredictable, but the tools of quantum mechanics can give us a way to understand why. For instance, when you stare long enough at an optical illusion, your perception will randomly switch back and forth.

Scientists have found that the way people’s brains process optical illusions can be modeled as a simple, two-state quantum system and that this model can be used to explain why humans are sometimes so unpredictable.

Astronomy, Space

Are There Any Real Pictures of Mercury?

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Mercury, the closest planet to our sun, is a very hot planet, with daytime temperatures reaching 430°C. However, the planet has cooled considerably over the years as its interior became colder.

Real Pictures of Mercury
MESSENGER images of Planet Mercury. Why craters are flat and Mercury’s past volcanism. #planetmercury #messengerprobe #mercury.

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Mercury was a lava planet billions of years ago, when the rocks on its surface melted. As a result, the planet’s surface reached temperatures of at least 600°C, potentially as high as 1300°C.

The lava in Raditladi crater on Mercury is much less runny than water. However, it can still travel for great distances before stopping. This is because the surface of the lava hardens, forming an insulating layer that keeps the lava flowing.

The lava was likely caused by a volcanic eruption or by the surface becoming so hot it melted the rock crust.

The smooth surface of Rustaveli, Copland, Polygnotus, and Rachmaninov craters are signs of lava flow.

Rachmaninov crater shows evidence of lava bubbling up from beneath the surface. Angkor Vallis shows clear signs of smooth lava flow from high to low ground, taking up vast swathes of the planet and turning it the orange colour we see today.

The area north east of Rachmaninov on Mercury is likely formed by volcanic activity. MESSENGER took detailed photographs of the area and found that it was covered in a fine dust.

The final indicator of volcanic activity on Mercury hints at eruptions so destructive that whole chunks were scooped out of the planet. The central peak of the crater Navoi is neither perfectly rounded nor tear-drop-shaped.

In conclusion

Scientists think that a crater on Mercury was not formed by an impact, but by the force of an erupting volcano. The crater’s remnants are scattered around the planet, and tell the story of a violent past.

So yes, there are definitely real pictures of Mercury. We hope you enjoyed exploring the solar system with us.

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Astronomy, Curiosities

Discoveries NASA made near the edge of the universe

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The Hubble space telescope allows us to see deep into space, changing our understanding of astrophysics and shaping our knowledge of the universe.

In this post, we explore the most distant objects ever seen by the Hubble telescope.
Hubble Images: This is what NASA has discovered at the edge of the universe

The Butterfly Nebula is a 3800 light-year-distance galaxy. The glowing gas that was once a star’s outer layer has spread out into space, creating the wing-like shape you’re seeing now.

Pismis 24 is a star cluster 8000 light-years away, with blue stars in and around the core of the emission nebula. The stars are very hot, and their ultraviolet radiation causes the gas surrounding the star to heat and bubble around the star in remarkable clouds.

Pismis 24 is part of the diffuse nebula NGC 6357, a “cosmic nursery” with many proto-stars shrouded by dark gases.

Palomar 12 is a globular cluster of stars abducted from its home galaxy by tidal interactions with the Milky Way.

The Sombrero Galaxy is a flat, disk-like galaxy 30 million light-years away. It is notable for the blinding white core at its center and the distinct lanes of cosmic dust spiraling outwards, giving the galaxy its distinctive Sombrero Shape.

The galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 is a broad, elliptical galaxy, 65 million light-years from Earth. It is missing all of its dark matter and is possibly the first galaxy of its kind to display such an absence.

Earendel is a star in the Cetus constellation, 28 billion light-years away. It is expected to explode as a supernova in a few million years. It is suspected to be 50 to 100 times the size of our sun.

Hubble has shown us the distant galaxy HD1. The HD1 galaxy is 13.5 billion light-years away but is now 33.4 billion light-years away with the universe’s expansion taken into account.

The galaxy NGC 6770 is 33.4 billion light-years away and maybe a starburst galaxy producing stars at an unprecedented rate. It could also be home to enormous Population III stars that are far more luminous than the stars we are familiar with.

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What is the farthest star we can see
Hubble Space Telescope has exceeded all expectations. An individual star further out than any previously observed was detected by Hubble within the first billion years after the big bang.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has detected a star (Earendel) 12.9 billion light years away. The farthest individual star ever seen to date. The star’s galaxy was magnified and distorted by gravitational lensing into a long crescent.

Astronomers studied a galaxy in detail and discovered a star that is at least 50 times the mass of our Sun and millions of times as bright as the most massive stars known.

Science, Space

Scientist’s FINALLY Discovered First-Ever White Hole

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The first white hole has been found by astronomers. Black holes are terrifying massive objects lurking in deep space and swallowing anything that comes near. White holes are no less terrifying, but they come in various sizes.
It is a fact! Scientists have found the evidence after years of speculation and research. A white hole for the first time! But what is a white hole? And why are astronomers so excited about it?

What are Stars? A Short Introduction

Mysterious Facts about Black Holes

Space Documentary | The Life Cycle of Black Holes

The Yellow Sun Paradox

Journey to the Center of the Milky Way Galaxy

Stellar black holes can be up to 20 times greater than the sun’s mass, but are relatively small. They exert a powerful gravitational pull on other objects. Every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center.

Scientists think black holes formed in the early universe, after the Big Bang. Stellar black holes form when the center of a very massive star collapses in upon itself.

Scientists can see the effects of a black hole’s strong gravity on stars and gases around it. When a black hole and a star are orbiting close together, high energy light is produced.

The sun will not become a black hole, but it will die in billions of years. After that, it will become a red giant star, a planetary nebula, and then a cooling white dwarf star.

White holes are the exact opposite of black holes, and they are regions in which space-time flows inexorably outwards. If a crew attempts to enter a white hole, the sheer force of the gamma rays would destroy them and their ship.

The theory of white holes

The theory of white holes was discovered due to the mathematical fascination with black holes. Carl Schwarzschild used Einstein’s field equations to find the equation of mass in empty space-time, which is a mathematical representation of a black hole.

Schwarzschild created an equation for a black hole that does not change in size and has always existed. When reversing time, we get a white hole.

Some scientists doubt that white holes exist, claiming that while they obey general relativity and are mathematically sound, they violate the second law of thermodynamics. That small decrease in entropy can occur as long as the universe’s overall entropy is increasing.

Black holes are excellent at increasing the chaos of space, but white holes, which eject matter, violate this law. If black holes could no longer evaporate and shrink due to the constraints of space-time, they would transform into white holes.

Nasa’s Swift satellite detected a gamma-ray burst in 2006 that lasted for 102 seconds. However, it did not appear to be associated with any star explosion. Still, some years later, scientists introduced the hypothesis that Grb060614 could have been a white hole.

Astronomy, Curiosities, Earth, Moon

How Big Is the Moon | The Moon’s size compared to Earth

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The moon is the brightest object in our night sky. It seems quite large, but only because it is the closest celestial body. The Moon is a little more than one-fourth the size of the Earth (27%), which is much smaller than the size ratios of other satellites to their planets.

How big is the Moon compared to Earth?
Size comparison between Earth and the Moon, including diameter, surface area, and volume. Video made by: Spacetime.

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Our moon is the fifth largest satellite in the solar system. The Moon has an average radius of 1,737.5 km and a diameter of 3,475 km, less than one-third the diameter of the Earth. The equatorial circumference is 10,917 km. The area is about 38 million square kilometers, which is smaller than the total area of the Asian continent of 44.5 million square kilometers.

“If you imagine that the Earth is the size of a coin, then the Moon can be compared to a coffee bean,” the researchers say.

Earth's Moon is 3.7x smaller than Earth
SIZE COMPARISON – Earth’s Moon.

Mass, density, and gravity

The mass of the Moon is 7.35 × 10^22 kg, about 1.2% of the mass of the Earth. In other words, the Earth weighs 81 times more than the Moon. The density of the Moon is 3.34 g/cm3. It is about 60% of the density of the Earth. The Moon is the second densest satellite in the solar system after the Jupiterian Io, whose similar parameter is 3.53 g/cm3.

The Moon’s gravitational force is only 16.6% of the Earth’s. A man who weighs 45 kg on Earth will weigh only 7.5 kg on the Moon. A person who can jump 3 meters on Earth will be able to jump almost 18 meters on the Moon.

As on most worlds in the solar system, the Moon’s gravity varies depending on its surface characteristics. In 2012, NASA’s GRAIL mission mapped lunar gravity in unprecedented detail.

“When we see a marked change in the gravitational field, we can synchronize that change with surface topography features, such as craters or mountains,” said mission collaborator Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a statement.
45 Amazing Moon Facts You Know Nothing About.

Although we can observe the Moon in the night sky (and sometimes in daylight), it is difficult to put its size and distance from Earth into perspective.

In this article we answered the questions “How big is the moon?” “And how big is the moon relative to the size of the earth?”

This article tries to answer the question with the help of text, images, and video. At our site, you will find answers to all the important questions concerning the solar system.

Science, Space

NASA’s Psyche Mission to an Asteroid

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NASA’s Psyche mission will explore a unique metallic asteroid between Mars and Jupiter in 2022. The asteroid could contain metal from the core of an early rocky planet.
NASA’s Psyche Mission to an Asteroid: Official NASA Trailer

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Psyche mission NASA

There aren’t many classes of objects left in the solar system that we haven’t looked at up close with a spacecraft. And one of them that’s left is the metal asteroids.

Psyche is an asteroid that orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. The Asteroid Psyche is unique because of its metal content. Psyche may be an early planetesimal remnant that was formed in the very, very beginnings of our solar system.

The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter that appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet.

This mission will explore a previously unexplored element in planet formation, iron cores. We will discover a new type of world – a metal one.

During the mission, laser communication technology will be tested instead of radio waves.

Psyche (spacecraft)

The Psyche probe will examine the origin of planetary cores by studying metallic asteroid 16 Psyche. This asteroid may be the exposed iron core of a protoplanet. As a result of a collision with another object, its outer crust was removed.

The principal investigator is Linda Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe. It’s a NASA project run by Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Launch

The launch is planned for July 2022 on a Falcon Heavy vehicle. The cost of the launch, including secondary payloads, is USD $117 million. Psyche will launch on a trajectory intended to Mars flyby on May 23, 2023. It will perform a gravity assist maneuver into the asteroid belt.