The ‘Iron Giant’ Asteroid Worth More Than Our Global Economy May Have An Explosive Secret Say Scientists
This artist’s conception shows a close-up of the Psyche asteroid.
Peter Rubin
A new study suggests that 16 Psyche, one of the most intriguing and most valuable asteroids we know of, could be covered in iron-spewing volcanoes.
It’s one of the theories being proposed to explain why the object, which measures 140 miles/226 kilometers in diameter and orbits the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, shines so brightly.
NASA will send its Psyche spacecraft to 16 Psyche later this year. It will arrive in 2026 and go into orbit in an effort to characterize the strange object.
Unlike most asteroids, which are comprised of rock and ice, 16 Psyche is thought to be the exposed metallic iron, nickel and gold heart of a dead planet from the early solar system whose rocky crust and mantle were blasted away by an ancient collision.
If that’s true then it could be worth $10,000 quadrillion—more than the worth of Earth’s economy—though such theories are largely based on how reflective its surface is.
A new study published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets suggests that 16 Psyche may be less heavy metal and more hard rock than previously thought.
This illustration depicts the 140-mile-wide (226-kilometer-wide) asteroid Psyche, which lies in the … [+]
Peter Rubin
It may be very reflective, but the way its gravity tugs on neighboring bodies suggests that 16 Psyche is not as dense as it would be if it was comprised primarily of iron.
It could be that 16 Psyche is highly porous, like a ball of steel wool, but this new study—which developed a computer model based on known thermal properties of iron—suggests that it’s very unlikely to have evolved that way. The researchers also say that it’s extremely unlikely that a body of 16 Psyche’s size could have cooled quickly enough to remain porous.
So if 16 Psyche isn’t a porous, all-iron body, what is it? The study suggests that it could actually be rockier than thought, with the reflectivity explained by the presence on its surface of volcanoes that have spewed some of its iron core onto its surface.
The Psyche spacecraft being assembled in Palo Alto, CA.
Maxar
The Psyche mission is part of NASA’s Discovery Program of low-cost robotic space missions. It’s due to launch from Pad 39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in August 2022 on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, fly-past Mars in 2023, and begin orbiting the asteroid in January 2026.
“The mission is exciting because Psyche is such a bizarre and mysterious thing,” said Fiona Nichols-Fleming, a Ph.D. student at Brown and the study’s lead author. “So anything the mission finds will be really important new data points for the solar system.”
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
