TORONTO —
New images from the Hubble Space Telescope have given scientists a closer look at one of the largest and most intriguing asteroids floating around the solar system – one that is thought to consist of metal estimated to be worth more than the entire global economy.
The gigantic asteroid, called 16 Psyche, is approximately 225 kilometres in diameter and orbits between Jupiter and Mars in the main asteroid belt. It’s of particular interest to scientists because, unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy, this one appears to be largely made up of metallic iron and nickel.
According to NASA, 16 Psyche may be the exposed core of an early planet – possibly as large as Mars – that lost its outer layers in violent collisions billions of years ago.
“Through some exciting collisions in its past, the mantle and the crust were stripped away, leaving bare this exposed, metallic core,” Tracy Becker, who led the study to examine the asteroid with the Hubble Space Telescope, told CTVNews.ca.
Becker, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, said that 16 Psyche might have been a protoplanet – a planet that has not yet fully formed – and that by studying it, scientists might be able to learn more about the Earth’s own core.
“If we can study the asteroid, we could potentially learn a little bit about Earth in the sense of having direct access to a planetary core, which we can never do here on Earth is see our own core,” she explained in a telephone interview on Thursday.
While astronomers have known about 16 Psyche’s existence for some years, they had never taken such a close look at it until Becker and her team used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe its surface at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths.
“The way it reflects light in ultraviolet could tell us, potentially, about its metal content and any other materials that we might see on the surface,” Becker said.
The scientists studied 16 Psyche at two specific points in its rotation in order to view both sides of the asteroid in great detail.
Becker says the telescope scans led to two major findings that were published in The Planetary Science Journal this week.
The first was observing UV light reflecting off 16 Psyche in similar way to how it’s reflected off metallic meteorites or a slab of iron.
“We confirmed that in the UV, it does look like it has metal on the surface,” she said.
However, their second observation called into question just how much metal is actually there. Based on their computer modelling, Becker said they determined that even a small presence of iron could dominate their UV observations.
“You can imagine, just like sprinkling a little bit of iron with other materials, and it would look very kind of iron-like in the way it reflected,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that it isn’t 100 per cent iron, it just means it could be as little as only 10 per cent.”
Despite this inconclusive data, Becker said they discovered that the asteroid actually brightened when they looked at it at deeper UV wavelengths. She said this could be an indication of some sort of “processing” on its surface from solar weathering.
“When we’ve seen this brightening in the deep UV before, it’s indicated to us that it could be processing due to things like the solar wind, which are just the charged particles coming from the sun and hitting that surface over the millions or even billions of years that it may have been exposed for,” she said.
While further research is needed, Becker said the processing could provide insight into the age and formation of the asteroid.
Becker said they conducted the study in order to get a better picture of 16 Psyche before NASA sends an unmanned spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to study the asteroid in 2022.
According to NASA, the “mission’s goal is, among other things, to determine whether Psyche is indeed the core of a planet-size object.”
Becker said she’s excited to see what the mission uncovers because if 16 Psyche is, indeed, a “big piece of metal,” they’re going to learn a lot about the Earth’s core and how the core of all planets in the solar system are formed.
“Even if it turns out that it’s not very in high metal content and it is a little bit more rocky than initially thought, it’s still going to tell us a lot about how these kinds of objects can form in the solar system and how they’ve changed, how they evolved, and how they’ve had collisions and things like that,” she said.
The asteroid’s composition has been a subject of great curiosity among scientists who even estimated its iron contents could be worth $10,000 quadrillion back in 2017. That’s such a big number it’s hard to conceive, but suffice to say it’s substantially larger than the $90 trillion worth of the global economy in 2019.
No matter its worth, Becker said we don’t have the technology to even think about a mission to bring pieces of it back to Earth.
“I think it would cost probably more to get there and get a piece and bring it back then than a small piece might be worth,” she said with a laugh.
“For me, the worth is really in the science that we can get out of studying it.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
