{"id":17344,"date":"2023-11-24T10:17:31","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T04:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=17344"},"modified":"2025-04-05T03:42:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T22:12:52","slug":"psyche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/psyche\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Psyche Mission?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Psyche Mission<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a\u00a0NASA mission that will\u00a0explore a 140-mile-wide (225-kilometers)\u00a0metallic asteroid called 16 Psyche.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The spacecraft\u00a0will enter the 16 Psyche asteroid&#8217;s orbit in 2029 and\u00a0spend two years\u00a0mapping the asteroid\u2019s topography, scanning the surface, taking pictures, and more, with the aim of gaining information about its makeup as well\u00a0as learning how metal core asteroids and planets are formed.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0objectives of the mission\u00a0include determining the age of regions on the asteroid,\u00a0studying its formation,\u00a0characterizing its topography, and studying dips in the asteroid&#8217;s gravity. Through the mission, scientists also\u00a0hope to explore an unknown building block of planet formation: iron cores.<\/li>\n<li>It will also be\u00a0the first time that a spacecraft will study a world made not of rocks and ice but of metal.<\/li>\n<li>With the Psyche mission, scientists have a chance to study how terrestrial planets were formed without having to carve up the Earth.<\/li>\n<li>16 Psyche:\n<ul>\n<li>It is currently\u00a0orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.<\/li>\n<li>It was discovered in 1852 by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis.<\/li>\n<li>It is\u00a0made up of gold,\u00a0silver, and nickel deposits, making it\u00a0metal-rich.<\/li>\n<li>According to NASA, it could be\u00a0worth more than Earth&#8217;s economy put together.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0outer surface of this asteroid\u00a0is nickel-rich, which\u00a0resembles an early planet&#8217;s core.<\/li>\n<li>It is also\u00a0one of the biggest asteroids in our solar system-279-km across at its widest point.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is an Asteroid?<\/h3>\n<p>Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the sun. Although asteroids orbit the sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets. They are leftovers from the formation of our solar system. From being as small as 10 meters across to as huge as 530 km in diameter, asteroids have varied sizes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/technology\/science\/nasa-psyche-mission-laser-9037536\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>NASA\u2019s Psyche mission fires lasers at Earth from 16 million kilometres away<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Psyche Mission is a NASA mission that will explore a 140-mile-wide (225-kilometers) metallic asteroid called 16 Psyche. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}