New temperature measurements confirm that Psyche is worth more than the entire global economy

Psyche orbits the sun in the asteroid belt, a stellar disk of the solar system located Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter And it contains more than one million rocky bodies with sizes ranging from 10 meters to 946 kilometers in diameter.

What is known?

The diameter of the breath is more than 200 km, making them the largest of the M-type asteroids, which are thought to be rich in minerals, so they could be parts of the protoplanetary cores that disintegrated when the solar system formed.

This study confirms that Thermal inertia Del Psychic High Compared to a typical asteroid, indicating that it has Unusually dense or conductive surface. In fact, the authors claim to have found that its thermal emission – the amount of heat it radiates – is only 60% of what would be expected from a typical surface with such thermal inertia.

This means that at least 30% of Psyche’s surface is made of metal. Moreover, the researchers found that the light emitted by the asteroid is scattered, indicating that The rocks on the surface are dotted with mineral grains.

His training “Puzzle”

“We have known for many years that objects of this class are not actually a solid metal, but what they are and how they were formed remains a mystery,” Confirms Catherine de Clare, associate professor of Planetarium Science and Astronomy at Caltech and co-author of the study.

The research team is now seeking to apply the techniques described in their article to other large objects in the asteroid belt, which provide a new perspective on the surface formations of these celestial bodies.

calculated The value of all the minerals that make up the soul exceeds the value of the world economy. American scientist Lindy Elkins Tanton, one of the principal investigators on NASA’s Psyche mission, calculated how Iron alone is worth about 10,000 quadrillion dollars on the earth. For comparison, in 2019, the global economy was worth about $142 trillion, according to Forbes.

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