In the Star Trek universe, most of the prime real estate is on “Class M” planets — worlds like Earth that can support human life. Modern scientists don’t use this classification—not yet, anyway. But they classify some asteroids as type M. And NASA is about to send a spacecraft to study the largest of them.
Psyche – named after the Greek goddess of the soul – is in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is shaped somewhat like a potato, with an average diameter of about 140 miles.
An asteroid is a member of type M if it has a high concentration of metals – especially iron and nickel. And this is true of Psyche. At first, scientists said it might be almost entirely metallic. They even estimated the value of this metal at about 10 billion billion dollars. More recent observations suggest that the fraction of metals may be about half, with much of the asteroid consisting of empty space.
Psyche may once have been part of a small planet. Its gravity was strong enough to melt the interior, so heavy elements – such as iron and nickel – settled into the core. Lighter elements drifted upward, forming the mantle and crust. Psyche would be part of the core. A collision could shatter the original body, blasting Psyche into space.
Studying Psyche can tell us more about how metal-core planets formed, especially the most famous M-class planet: Earth.
Even tomorrow.
Screenplay by Daymond Benningfield
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