A huge asteroid metallic called 16 Psychewhich is located in the constellation of Capricorn, is estimated to be worth approximately 190 sextillion euros (In numbers, it would be 90,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 euros) because it is thought to be full of rare and precious metals.
But new images from the James Webb Space Telescope NASA revealed that this expensive rock, about 225 kilometers across, could use a good “polishing.” The telescope data suggest that there is rust that is forming on its surface. A team of researchers published their findings in a study accepted into the Planetary Science Journal.
Researchers have identified chemical signals of hydroxylswhich are oxygen and hydrogen atoms bonded together. This same chemical signal has been detected on meteorites that also contain rust, carbon, and water. Scientists think the hydroxyls combined with metal on the asteroid to form rust.
Mysterious origins of the ultra precious asteroid
Scientists believe that the hydroxyls arrived on the asteroid in two possible ways: they could have been brought by meteorites that hit Psyche in the past, or they may have formed inside the asteroid itself. This would suggest that Psyche may have come from outside the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, and arrived at its current location later.
Scientists have also speculated that Psyche could be the remains of a planetesimalone of the building blocks that gave rise to rocky planets like Earth. In other words, studying a rock like Psyche may be the closest scientists can come to studying the Earth’s core.
For comprehend better the origins of Psyche, the NASA launched a space probe with the same name as the asteroid in October 2023. The probe is expected to arrive on Psyche by mid-2029 and, together with recent space telescope data, the NASA hopes to gain a more complete picture of the asteroid’s chemical composition and history, perhaps answering fundamental questions about the ancient origins of our planet.
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