NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has discovered hydrated minerals on the surface of asteroid 16 Psyche. The asteroid is one of the most intriguing and potentially valuable known to astronomers, and the space agency sent a spacecraft to explore it last year.

The discovery of hydroxyl molecules on one of the brightest objects in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter suggests a complex story that is different from what scientists expected. Hydroxyl molecules consist of one hydrogen and one oxygen atom.

It is said that the metals that make up 16 Psyche could be worth about $10,000 quadrillion. According to Visual Capitalist, the global economy would be worth about $105 trillion by the end of 2023, although neither NASA nor any other space agency is currently researching how to mine 16 Psyche.

Catastrophic collision

The discovery could mean that 16 Psyche is not the exposed metallic core of a protoplanet that experienced a catastrophic collision before becoming a planet – as scientists thought – but an asteroid from beyond the solar system’s “snow line” that has wandered into the asteroid belt. The snow line is the minimum distance from the sun at which temperatures are low enough for water to turn to ice.

The findings have implications for what NASA will find in Psyche 16 when its space probe arrives in 2029, as well as for the distribution of water in the solar system and thus for the search for life outside of Earth.

Exposed core

This research, which used the infrared capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope, asks what asteroids like 16 Psyche – so-called M-class asteroids – are like. “Our understanding of the evolution of the solar system is closely tied to interpretations of the composition of asteroids, particularly M-class asteroids, which contain higher concentrations of metals,” said Dr. Stephanie Jarmak of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the lead author of a paper published in the Journal of Planetary Research this week. “These asteroids were initially thought to be the exposed cores of differentiated planetesimals, a hypothesis based on their spectral similarity to iron meteorites.”

Solar nebula

Whether Psyche 16 always contained water or whether it was supplied by other asteroids that collided with it remains a mystery. “Asteroids are leftovers from the planet formation process, so their composition varies depending on where they formed in the solar nebula,” said co-author Dr. Anicia Arredondo of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. She explained that if the water on Psyche 16 has always been there, it is unlikely that it is the leftover core of a protoplanet.

According to NASA, the Solar Nebula is a swirling cloud of dust and gas that collapsed to create the Sun.

Psyche Mission

NASA launched the Psyche spacecraft on October 13, 2023, on a 3.5 billion kilometer journey to reach the asteroid in August 2029. It will then take at least 21 months to map the asteroid’s orbit and study its properties.

Because 16 Psyche is so bright and dense, it is believed to be metallic. With a diameter of about 225 kilometers, it is also one of the most massive objects in the main asteroid belt. It is about 370 million kilometers from Earth.

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