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The Psyche asteroid is roughly 124 miles in diameter and sits in the main belt<\/a> between Mars and Jupiter, sharing space with more than a million other rocks. <\/p>\n Some early ideas suggested it might be the exposed core of a shattered young world. Newer data paint a richer picture \u2013 one that blends metal with rock and links texture to temperature.<\/p>\n Fresh eyes on the Psyche asteroid<\/p>\n After years of debate, researchers turned to the ALMA<\/a> radio telescope array in Chile with 66 dishes to look at Psyche\u2019s own heat. <\/p>\n They observed thermal radiation at millimeter wavelengths and tracked how the asteroid warmed in sunlight and cooled after nightfall. <\/p>\n Instead of the fuzzy, single\u2011pixel views common for distant asteroids, they produced a temperature map with about 50 pixels, each covering roughly 18 miles by 18 miles. That jump in detail helped them test competing ideas about the composition of Psyche\u2019s surface<\/a>.<\/p>\n The day-night temperature shifts were gentle \u2013 changes of only a few to low double\u2011digit kelvins across most of the surface \u2013 evidence that Psyche\u2019s top layer resists rapid heating and cooling. <\/p>\n In other words, it shows moderate\u2011to\u2011high thermal inertia and a surface that is comparatively compact rather than fluffy. <\/p>\n \u201cLow thermal inertia is typically associated with layers of dust, while high thermal inertia may indicate rocks on the surface,\u201d says Saverio Cambioni, a Caltech<\/a> researcher. \u201cHowever, discerning one type of landscape from the other is difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n What the data show<\/p>\n Thermal inertia alone cannot settle the metal question, so the team examined emissivity \u2013 the efficiency with which a surface emits heat at a given wavelength \u2013 and looked for polarized thermal light. <\/p>\n They measured low emissivity at millimeter wavelengths and found that Psyche\u2019s thermal emission was 60% of what would be expected from a surface with standard thermal inertia. <\/p>\n Models that match those data require a significant metal fraction. The conclusion: metal makes up at least 30% of Psyche\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n A second clue came from polarization. Metals often produce strongly polarized thermal signals, but Psyche\u2019s polarized emission was near zero. <\/p>\n Rethinking thermal light<\/p>\n That is not a contradiction. Small metallic grains scattered through rock can scramble the orientation of thermal light before it escapes, leaving a weak polarization signal even when metal is abundant. <\/p>\n As Katherine de Kleer points out, \u201cWe\u2019ve known for many years that objects in this class are not, in fact, solid metal, but what they are and how they formed is still an enigma.\u201d <\/p>\n The new data lock in the mixed nature of Psyche\u2019s surface and help clarify how texture can hide polarization. <\/p>\n \u201cThe findings are a step toward resolving the mystery of the origin of this unusual object, which has been thought by some to be a chunk of the core of an ill-fated protoplanet,\u201d the study authors explain.<\/p>\n These results correct an earlier assumption: weak polarized thermal emission does not always mean little metal when metallic grains are mixed into rock.<\/p>\n Mission to the Psyche asteroid<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Psyche mission<\/a> launched in October 2023 to put these ideas to the test up close and to sort fact from fiction about this unusual world. The spacecraft will reach the asteroid in 2029 and spend about 21 months studying it. <\/p>\n Engineers built a high\u2011gain antenna<\/a> into the spacecraft to send data home and added two solar arrays to power the journey, including long stretches far from the Sun. The flight system uses solar electric propulsion to cruise efficiently through deep space.<\/p>\n Once in orbit, the payload will go to work. A multispectral imager will capture high\u2011resolution pictures through several filters to map geology and search for compositional variations. <\/p>\n A gamma\u2011ray and neutron spectrometer will measure the distribution of elements at the surface. A magnetometer will check for remnant magnetization, a telltale of past core\u2011like processes. <\/p>\n An X\u2011band radio system will track tiny changes in the spacecraft\u2019s motion<\/a> to read asteroid Psyche\u2019s gravity field and probe its interior structure.<\/p>\n What scientists hope to learn<\/p>\n The mission\u2019s science questions are straightforward and ambitious. Teams aim to determine whether Psyche is an exposed core or a different kind of metal\u2011rich body; estimate its age; map its topography in detail; and measure its elemental composition. <\/p>\n Taken together, those results will test how rocky planets grew and separated into crust, mantle, and core.<\/p>\n If Psyche is not a bare core, that answer still matters. A metal\u2011rich, consolidated surface made of rock and metal grains would record a long history of heating, impacts, and alteration. <\/p>\n That history can reveal conditions in the inner solar system when planets assembled and help connect laboratory experiments on metal\u2011silicate mixtures with a real object we can study from orbit.<\/p>\n Naming an asteroid \u201cPsyche\u201d<\/p>\n Also known as 16 Psyche, the asteroid was discovered in 1852 and named for the figure from Greek mythology. It stands out as the largest known M\u2011type asteroid<\/a>, a class often associated with metal\u2011rich compositions. <\/p>\n Some researchers propose that Psyche could be very old and formed closer to the Sun before migrating to the main belt. Others keep the exposed\u2011core idea on the table but expect that any core\u2011like material would now be mixed with rock.<\/p>\n Valuation of a space rock<\/p>\n Where do people get the astronomical valuations for the Psyche asteroid? Here\u2019s the simple \u201cback-of-the-envelope\u201d approach that is normally used. <\/p>\n Start with Psyche\u2019s size and a reasonable guess about what it\u2019s made of. Its total mass is about 2.4 \u00d7 10^16 metric tons. <\/p>\n If we assume that the metal mix looks like typical iron meteorites<\/a> (about 91% iron, 9% nickel, and around 0.6% cobalt by mass), we can pair each metal with a basic sticker price from today\u2019s market. <\/p>\n To keep it simple, use about $100 per ton for iron (close to iron-ore pricing), about $15,000 per ton for nickel, and about $48,000 per ton for cobalt.<\/p>\n Now we do the math with those round numbers. Two-thirds of Psyche\u2019s mass is about 1.58 \u00d7 10^16 tons of metal. <\/p>\n Of that, iron would be about 1.44 \u00d7 10^16 tons; at roughly $100 per ton, that\u2019s about $1.5 quintillion. Nickel would be about 1.36 \u00d7 10^15 tons; at roughly $15,000 per ton, that lands near $20 quintillion. Cobalt would be about 1.0 \u00d7 10^14 tons; at roughly $48,000 per ton, that\u2019s about $4.8 quintillion. <\/p>\n Add those together and you get a headline number around $27 quintillion. Remember, this is a \u201cmass \u00d7 sticker price\u201d fantasy. Real mining would face huge costs and limits, and dumping that much metal into any market would push prices way down. But\u2026it\u2019s fun to think about.<\/p>\n Why asteroid Psyche matters<\/p>\n We cannot sample Earth\u2019s core directly, yet cores shape everything from magnetic fields to volcanic activity. A metal\u2011rich asteroid offers a natural laboratory for studying those processes at a smaller scale. <\/p>\n By tying mineral chemistry to gravity, magnetism, and surface texture, scientists can check models of core formation against a real object. The implications reach beyond one asteroid to the history of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.<\/p>\n This reading of Psyche\u2019s signals sets a careful baseline for interpreting other worlds viewed from millions of miles away. <\/p>\n With an orbiter en route and a full suite of instruments ready, the field has what it needs to turn remote clues into a complete, testable story.<\/p>\n The full study was published in the Planetary Science Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An asteroid named \u201916 Psyche\u2019 has a keen way of keeping scientists on their toes. For years, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-456524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}