Unveiling the Soggy Mysteries of Psyche: A Voyage to a Metallic World

The promise of riches is hidden in pure form in an asteroid, a rocky body that’s like a meteorite come full circle. A few years from now, a NASA mission is going to try to uncover those riches: Psyche, a rare metallic asteroid locked in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, should be a gem, giving us a look at the chaotic planetary nebula from which our solar system formed more than 4 billion years ago. This asteroid holds the potential to provide the kind of scientific insight that could rival understanding one of our own planetary bodies. Unfortunately, everything we know about Psyche today might be due for a major revision. As we prepare to send the first mission ever to orbit a body made of iron and nickel, Psyche has quietly revealed one spectacular secret after another. It turns out that what we thought was a desiccated rock could, in fact, be a wet one.

A Glimpse into the Solar System's Building Blocks

The Journey to Psyche

NASA’s Psyche mission is scheduled to launch in October and will fly 2.2 billion miles through the cosmos to rendezvous with Psyche in August of 2029. This will be no ordinary journey to explore an asteroid. It could be an entirely new way to think about the formation of planets.

Unraveling Psyche's Metallic Mysteries

But Psyche is no ordinary asteroid. It is currently thought to be the exposed interior of a failed planet, a rocky skeleton of a body that never quite reached planethood. As a result, Psyche is a window into a world that we might never actually visit: the innards of a planet.

The Surprising Sogginess of a Metallic World

Water on Psyche? A Rust-Like Revelation

The phrase ‘metallic asteroid’ conjures up images of a parched, stark landscape, more akin to a giant iron foundry in space than anything else. But advanced observations dispute the stark image. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), Psyche’s surface is now illuminated in ways we couldn’t previously imagine. The work of Stephanie Jarmak with JWST has been integral in characterisation efforts by detecting water signatures on the surface, and the work of Anicia Arredondo with SOFIA has provided insight into the variations in Psyche’s composition.

What Lies Beneath: A Closer Look at Psyche's Surface

In fact, results from JWST and SOFIA indicate a more complicated surface than previously believed. If Psyche has a metal shell, its surface might be dusted with rust, reflecting evidence for significant water. The possibility of a hydrated rock flips the script on what we had imagined: an asteroid that had to be much more diverse and perhaps even volatile-filled in its past.

The Quest for Answers: NASA's Psyche Mission

The Key to Unlocking Planetary Secrets

When it swings by Psyche next year, NASA’s upcoming mission to the asteroid won’t be flying through space – it will be dropping into the depths of planetary history. After all, perhaps Psyche can offer vital clues about the processes that lead to the creation of planets, like Earth. And, as its strange hints of moisture suggest, even its surface might tell some rousing tales never before written into the textbooks.

Resolving the Mysteries of Composition and Hydration

Despite being inherently variable, the recently proposed hydration of Psyche’s surface has only added to its intrigue. The conflicting observations and the enigmatic presence of rust-like materials demand further inspection. With the help of its capitol ship mission, the data being collected by NASA will help answer these questions, perhaps confirming the role of water in the asteroid’s geologic history and, in turn, that of the history of other planetary bodies.

Embarking on a Cosmic Odyssey

Delving Into the Surface of Space Exploration

Beyond revealing Psyche’s unique attributes, Psyche’s surface study will also show why surface investigations are so important for missions sent to other bodies. The topography and mineral composition of the surface are critical to unlocking the stories of other worlds and the evolution of our solar system. Surface studies are integral to new discoveries that have the power to reshape our understanding of space.

The wait for the day when Psyche blasts off, and then arrives, has begun, and it is one of the most potentially transformative missions in the history of space exploration. The wet rock of the iron asteroid, then, is but one of many parables – and what parables they are – about the surprises that the Universe has in store for those who, in astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s words from the Moon in 1969, have ‘taken the step outwards.’