merelygifted:

Astronomers Unveil The Most Detailed Map of The Metal Asteroid Psyche Yet

If you wanted to do a forensic study of the Solar System, you might head for the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. That’s where you can find ancient rocks from the Solar System’s early days. Out there in the cold vacuum of space, far from the Sun, asteroids are largely untouched by space weathering.

Space scientists sometimes refer to asteroids – and their meteorite fragments that fall to Earth – as time capsules because of the evidence they hold.

The asteroid Psyche is especially interesting, and NASA is sending a mission to investigate the unusual chunk of rock.

In advance of that mission, a team of researchers combined observations of Psyche from an array of telescopes and constructed a map of the asteroid’s surface.

Astronomers divide asteroids into three categories. Carbonaceous or C-type asteroids are the most common type. They make up about 75 percent of known asteroids and contain large amounts of carbon. The carbon makes them dark, and they have low albedoes.

Silicaceous or S-type asteroids are the second most common type. They make up about 17 percent of known asteroids and are mostly made of iron and magnesium silicates.

Metal or M-type asteroids are the rarest types of asteroids and make up about 8 percent of known asteroids. They appear to contain more metal than the other asteroid types, and scientists think they’re the source of iron meteorites that fall to Earth. M-type meteorites were one of the earliest sources of iron in human history.

Psyche (16 Psyche) is an M-type asteroid. It’s also called a dwarf planet because it’s about 220 kilometers (140 mi) in diameter. It’s referred to as 16 Psyche because it was the 16th minor planet discovered. (Larger asteroids like Psyche are also known as minor planets.)  …

…  Visible light images of Psyche don’t tell us much. The European Southern Observatory’s VLT captured some pictures of the asteroid, but they didn’t reveal any detail.

Psyche’s history is a history of uncertainty. For a long time, astronomers thought it was the exposed iron core of a much larger body. In this hypothesis, a powerful collision or series of collisions stripped away the body’s crust and mantle.

The larger body would’ve been fully differentiated and measured something like 500 km (310 miles) in diameter. With the crust and mantle gone, only the iron-rich core remained.

That idea fell out of favor as time passed and astronomers continued observing it. Evidence showed that it wasn’t dense enough to be solid iron and is likely porous.

Other researchers suggested that Psyche was disrupted somehow and then re-accreted as a mix of metals and silicates. One study indicated that Psyche isn’t as metal-rich as thought and is more of a rubble pile. In that scenario, collisions with more common C-type asteroids deposited a layer of carbon and other materials onto Psyche’s surface.

The most exotic idea behind Psyche’s origins is the Ferro-volcanic idea. A 2019 study presented evidence that Psyche was once a molten blob. In that scenario, the outer layers cooled and formed stress cracks, and the buoyant molten core erupted as iron volcanoes.

The only way to find out for sure what Psyche is is to go and look at it. So that’s what NASA is doing.

The mission is called Psyche and is scheduled for launch sometime in fall 2022. The spacecraft will rely on solar-electric propulsion and a gravity-assist maneuver with Mars to arrive at Psyche in 2026.  …

drowsylawliet:

merelygifted:

Betelgeuse ‘Great Dimming’ Mystery Solved by Satellite Photobomb - Scientific American

thecryptocreep:

catchymemes:

Snowing at sea

Why do I never think about the possibility of snow on the ocean???
Now I see why, because it’s too ethereal

p-o-s-s-e-s-s-e-d-b-y-f-i-r-e:

• Pantera  - Cemetery Gates

davealmost:

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die