Lets get you prepared for your journey to the asteroid Psyche!
Your launch day is quickly approaching, so lets get to learning ...
Psyche is located between Mars and Jupiter, so prepare for a long flight
You will begin your flight at Kennedy Space Center, FL heading towards Mars.
Over the next few months you will have some great views of Earth, our Moon, and finally a nice trip around Mars
And a couple of years later ... you will finally arrive at Psyche!!!
As NASA Space Place explains, a year on Earth, which we all know, is approximately
365 days, which is about how long it takes Earth to orbit all the way around the Sun one time.
Pscyhe is much further away from the Sun, compared to Earth, meaning a year is a lot longer than 365 days. In fact, it takes Psyche about 1,828 Earth days,
or apprximately five Earth years, to complete one orbit around Sun.
This means, while you are on Psyce, you will only have one birthday compared to your friends on Earth who will have five, in the same timeframe.
This seems like a really long time until you compare it to the next closest planet, Jupiter, where you would only have one birthday and your friends would
have almost twelve!!!! What about if you lived on the furthest planet in our Solar System, Neptune? Well, for each birthday you would celebrate on Neptune, your
friends on Earth would celebrate almost 165 birthdays!!!!
↓ Find out your age on different planets ↓
Here we will get to learn a bit of physics, particulary the effects gravity has on our ability to lift objects.
On Earth, we have a gravity equal to 9.81m/s2 and on Psyche, the gravity is 0.144m/s2.
Gravity is easiest to understand as being a force that pushes an object down. The higher the gravitational force, the more it pushes an object
towards the surface.
Since Psyche has such a low gravitational force compared to Earth, some believe that if you are strong enough to lift up your dog on Earth,
you will be able to lift up a car on Psyche!
One day on Psyche is about the same as 4 hours and 12 minutes on Earth.
On Earth, your day might look like:
Where on Psyche, your day might look like:
Psyche was discovered by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis on March 17, 1852.
He named the asteroid for Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul who was born mortal
and married Eros (Roman Cupid), the god of Love.
Because it was the 16th asteroid to be discovered, it is sometimes referred to as 16 Psyche.
Scientists think Psyche may consist of significant amounts of metal from the core of a planetesimal, one of the building blocks of our solar system. The asteroid is most likely a survivor of multiple violent hit-and-run collisions, common when the solar system was forming. Thus, Psyche may be able to tell us how Earth’s core and the cores of the other rocky, or terrestrial, planets came to be.
Psyche is approximately 173 miles / 278 kilometers at its widest point
Psyche is approximately 144 miles / 232 kilometers at its tallest point
Psyche's approximately the same size as the state of Maryland in the United States
or the country of Switzlerland.
If you were to combine the space occupited by all sides/faces of Psyche, known as surface area, Psyche is bigger than 103 countries,
to include Bangladesh.
If Psyche were a country on Earth, it would be the 92nd largest.
Up until recently, the scientific consensus was that the asteroid Psyche consisted mostly of metal.
The more recent data indicates that the asteroid is possibly a mix of metal and silicate, the same
material found in glass and sand.
The best analysis indicates that Psyche is likely made of a
mixture of rock and metal, with metal composing 30% to 60% of its volume.
Scientists, through the combining of radar and optical observations, have generated a 3D model of Psyche,
which is believed to have two craterlike depressions, and suggests that there may be significant
variations in the metal content and color of the asteroid over its surface.
Until the satellite, also named Psyche, begins its mission to see the asteroid Psyche up close for the
first time, we don’t know what it actually looks like.
On Earth, the coldest temperatures can be observed in the East Antarctic Plateau, reaching temperatures as low as -133.6° Farenheit or -92° Celsius, that is really cold.
On Psyche, it is believed that this would be a warm day, as temperatures range from -136° to -225° Farenheit, or -93° to -143° Celsius.