An American space agency (NASA) probe has left Earth to visit one of the Solar System’s most unusual objects.
The spacecraft is on its way to a metal world, an asteroid called 16 Psyche.
Which telescopic observations indicate is composed of up to 60% iron and nickel.
Asteroid Named 16 Psyche
Scientists believe it is the remnant core of a planet-like object whose outer rocky layers have been stripped away.
The investigation spacecraft, also known as Psyche, was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
A Falcon-Heavy rocket lifted off at 10:19:43 local time (14:19 GMT; 15:19 BST).
To launch the probe on a six-year, 3.5 billion km (2.2 billion mile) journey to its destination, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Scientists anticipate that their quarry will be full of surprises.
Psyche’s Properties
Only nine of the Solar System’s million and a half known asteroids appear to share some of Psyche’s properties – and the targeted body is by far the largest, measuring about 280km (175 miles) at its widest point.
“The big thrill is that we’re going to go see a kind of world that humans have never seen before,” said principal investigator Prof Lindy Elkins-Tanton from Arizona State University.
“We don’t have any close up pictures of it; we do not know what it looks like. To me, that’s the essence of exploration, that people always want to see what they haven’t seen yet,” she told.
When the spacecraft arrives at the asteroid in August 2029, it will orbit at various distances – the shortest being approximately 75km (47 miles).
In order to map the asteroid’s shape and decipher its internal structure and composition.
Metal objects struck by small, fast-moving micrometeoroids in space are expected to develop a spiky appearance over time.
These collisions may have even created a type of metal sand that now covers Psyche’s surface.
Although scientists have determined that iron and nickel dominate the object, telescopes have detected additional components.
These could be sulphur-rich yellowish-green rocks. One peculiar feature could be the presence of metal cliffs formed as Psyche cooled, shrank, and cracked over the Solar System’s 4.6-billion-year life.
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