Richest asteroid | 16 Psyche Asteroid | Most Expensive | Golden asteroid скачать в хорошем качестве

Richest asteroid | 16 Psyche Asteroid | Most Expensive | Golden asteroid

Richest asteroid | 16 Psyche Asteroid | Most Expensive | Golden asteroid 16 Psyche is one of the most massive asteroids in the asteroid belt. It is over 200 kilometres in diameter and contains about 1 percent of the mass of the entire asteroid belt. Psyche is thought to be the exposed iron core of a protoplanet, and is the most massive metallic M-type asteroid. Astronomers on Earth have studied 16 Psyche in visible and infrared wavelengths, as well as radar, which suggest Psyche is shaped somewhat like a potato. Observations indicate that its dimensions are 173 miles by 144 miles, by 117 miles (that’s 279, 232 and 189 kilometers, respectively). Psyche orbits the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter at a distance ranging from 235 million to 309 million miles (378 million to 497 million kilometers) from the Sun. That’s 2.5 to 3.3 Astronomical Units (AU), with 1 AU being the distance between Earth and the Sun. Psyche takes about five Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun, but only a bit over four hours to rotate once on its axis (a Psyche “day”). This intriguing asteroid is now the primary target of the Psyche mission. Targeted to launch in August of 2022, the Psyche spacecraft would arrive at the asteroid in early 2026, following a Mars gravity assist in 2023. Over 21 months in orbit, the spacecraft will map and study 16 Psyche’s properties using a multispectral imager, a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, a magnetometer, and a radio instrument (for gravity measurement). The mission’s goal is, among other things, to determine whether Psyche is indeed the core of a planet-size object.