Two asteroids have zoomed past Earth along their orbit around the Sun. The asteroids - 2019 QS and 2019 OU1, classified as Near-Earth Objects are being monitored by NASA's Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) along their path around the Sun.
The 2019 QS which was first detected on 21st August, 2019 is thought to be 108 feet wide and 240 feet in diameter. At its closest approach of 0.34733 astronomical units(AU) from Earth, the asteroid was travelling at a speed of about 80,000 kmph. This was the first asteroid to fly-by Earth on August 28. The asteroid is expected to return in Earth’s vicinity on November 30, 2127 and will be at a distance of 0.34733 AU on its closest approach.
The Psyche Mission is an undertaking by NASA under The Discovery Missions which aims to explore the Universe. Psyche Mission aims to examine an asteroid which is completely made up of metal instead of rock and ice. The asteroid is called Psyche 16 and is composed mostly of iron and nickel. Scientists have also considered that the asteroid might be a core of an early planet which could have been as big as Mars
The 2019 OU1 was the second asteroid to fly-by Earth and was detected on 25th July, 2019 and has a diameter of 558 feet. The asteroid, at its closest approach of 0.00688 AU, was travelling at a speed of about 46,000 kmph. This asteroid will return to Earth’s vicinity around December 30, 2080 and will be at a distance of 0.33513 AU on its closest approach.
The asteroids have been classified by NASA as Apollo Asteroids, as they are Near-Earth asteroids, with a very wide orbit around Earth and the Sun having perihelion distances less than 1.017 AU, and semi-major axis greater than 1 AU.According to NASA, Psyche is shaped like a potato with the dimensions - 279, 232 and 189 kilometers. It is part of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and orbits the Sun at an orbit of about 2.5 to 3.3 Astronomical Units (AU). The asteroid has sparked interest because of its unique composition which can worth be more than precious metals like gold and platinum.This intriguing asteroid is the primary target of the Psyche mission which is to be launched in August 2022. Psyche spacecraft will then take about 4 years to arrive at the asteroid in 2026. The spacecraft will remain in orbit of the asteroid for the duration of 21 months mapping and studying the physical and chemical properties by making use of a radio instrument (for gravity measurement), a multispectral imager, a gamma-ray, a magnetometer, and a neutron spectrometer. The mission aims to determine whether Psyche is indeed a core of from an early planet-size object or not.
The Psyche Mission is the first mission that would be investigating a celestial body made of metal, instead of rock and ice. It is thought that the cores of a planet that lie deep within the various layers of solid and liquid matter are metallic in nature. As it is impossible to study Earth's core directly, Psyche 16 is a rare opportunity to study how cores of terrestrial planets were formed.In 2030, a robotic emissary launched from Earth seven years earlier will lay eyes on a metal world never seen from close range.
That NASA spacecraft, known as Psyche, will carry with it a number of instruments designed to spy on the the metallic world called 16 Psyche as it circles the sun. Snaps captured by Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft have revealed new information surrounding the composition of Asteroid 162173 Ryugu. Apparently, Asteroid Ryugu bears an uncanny resemblance to the rocks from meteorites that crashed down on Earth. The analysis was carried out by a team of European and Japanese scientists who analyzed the newly released photos taken from the asteroid’s surface by Hayabusa-2's robotic lander, MASCOT, back in 2018.
Researchers state that since the asteroid Ryugu, a 900-m-diameter dark object, consists of materials from the early days of our solar system, the analysis by the scientists provide further insight into understanding the formation of our solar system. The study titled, “Images from the surface of asteroid Ryugu show rocks similar to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites”has been published in the journal Science.Researcher, R. Jaumann at Institute for Planetary Research, analyzed the images taken by the MASCOT camera during its descent while it rested on the surface.
Researchers made use of colored light-emitting diodes to illuminate the lander's surroundings at night, which in turn, helped produce colored images. As per the analysis, Ryugu's surface is largely composed of two types of rock. These rocks are either bright consisting of smooth faces and sharp edges, or dark with a crumbly surface. There are also millimeter-sized inclusions present in the rocks that seem very similar to those present in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, one of the oldest known rocks in the Solar System.
“What we have from these images is really knowing how the rocks and material is distributed on the surface of this asteroid, what the weathering history of this stuff is, and the geologic context. It's the first information on this kind of material in its original environment”, R. Jaumann from German Aerospace Center told Gizmodo.
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