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It left our planet more than two months ago, but NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is 16 million miles from Earth, heading towards its main destination: the asteroid Psyche. Eager to prove its readiness, the spacecraft returned the first images taken by both of its cameras to create a stunning mosaic of stars. dots
Psyche’s mission was released on October 13, towards an unusual, treasure-rich asteroid of the same name (which can be a bit confusing). During the first eight weeks of the mission, the mission team tested Psyche’s various instruments. NASA recently turned on the spacecraft’s twin cameras and brought back the first set of images, showing a star in the constellation Pisces, according to space agency.
Psyche captured a total of 68 images, which were woven together to create a mosaic of bright stars. This is the region of the sky that the cameras are pointing at during the first imaging test; the brightest star, burning Pisces, is located on the right side of the image.
“These first images are just an opening curtain,” said Jim Bell, Psyche’s instrument director, in a statement. “For the team that designed and implemented this unique tool, the first knowledge was a joy.”
Imager A took the left half of the mosaic and Imager B took the right half, using multiple color filters and an exposure time of six seconds. The view of the resulting mosaic is about 8 degrees wide by 3.5 degrees high.
Using the Psyche imaging system, the team behind the mission will collect images at long wavelengths of light visible and invisible to the human eye, to help determine the composition of the rich asteroid. The team will also use the data to create 3D maps of Psyche to better understand its geography, which could provide clues as to how the asteroid came to be.
Psyche is a 173-mile-wide (280-kilometer) asteroid that orbits the Sun in the outer part of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe that the space rock may be the core of a panesimal, or building block of the first planet, which had its outer layer removed early in the formation of the sun.
Psyche, the spacecraft, will travel about 2.2 billion miles to reach the main asteroid belt and enter asteroid Psyche’s orbit in late July 2029 .Throughout its journey, photographers will continue to search for the ship’s cameras.
“We’re going to start checking cameras and star images like these, and then by 2026 we’ll be taking prototype pictures of Mars during flybys.” Finally, in 2029 we will have our most interesting images – our target asteroid Psyche,” said Bell. “We look forward to sharing all of these visuals with the public.”
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