earth2earth Seminar: Psyche: Journey to a Metallic World

28 January 2021, 3.00 PM - 28 January 2021, 4.00 PM

Professor Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Arizona State University

“Psyche” is both the name of an asteroid in the main belt, orbiting out past Mars, and the name of our mission to visit that asteroid. Psyche’s density, radar, and reflected light properties indicate that it is largely made of metal. Humans have never visited a world made of metal. So if Psyche turns out to be what we think, we’ll be visiting a new kind of world. 

Our spacecraft will launch in August 2022 – just 19 months away! – and in 2026 will begin orbiting Psyche and performing carefully planned scientific measurements. In this talk we’ll discuss the state of the mission and our plans, and, especially, what we each are doing on the mission and how we got here. 

Psyche will surprise us. The universe always outsteps even our best imaginations. And our whole Psyche team looks forward to sharing all we discover with everyone here on Earth.

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/93801059161

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/c4i6gemEZhc

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