Remnant Core of a Protoplanet: Asteroid 16 Psyche

Asteroid 16 Psyche was discovered long ago. But it wasn't until recently(last 30 years or so) that we've been able to study it. It seems that 16 Psyche is a remnant heavy metal core whose outer rocky shell was stripped off over millions of years. It's iron/nickle composition is similar to what the Earth's core is theorized to be made from. It is also theorized that 16 Psyche could very well have a powerful magnetic field, similar to Earth, however weaker due to it's solid, cold state.

Asteroid 16 Psyche was discovered in 1852, but it was not until the 1980s that it was recognised as an oddball. Radar observations made from Earth revealed that Psyche is about 200 kilometres across and is made of 90 per cent iron and nickel, with 10 per cent silicate rock.

This composition is strikingly similar to that of Earth's metal core. That means Psyche could have started life as a small rocky world with a metal core and a silicate mantle, similar to the large asteroid Vesta. And astronomers think larger planets like Earth and Venus could have formed when such nascent worlds collided and merged.

But other times, incoming asteroids might have stripped a proto-planet of its soft outer layers. Psyche could have fallen victim to a series of hit-and-runs that robbed it of its mantle, leaving just the metallic core behind. If that core had been liquid at some point, it would have given the object a strong magnetic field. In fact, Psyche could still have a remnant field almost as strong as the Earth's.

-From New Scientist

An interesting feature of our solar system. With all the hype surrounding the discovery of watery worlds, rocky worlds, and gas giants, to find such mysterious objects in our own back yard is fantastic.

I say we hollow her out, put some spin on it for an internal gravity, stick some engines on and go places.



200km of Nickel Iron? That's a city sized battleship.
You could have Hull Thickness a dozen kilometers deep with room for Millions of people to live quite comfortably on the inside with still plenty elbow room.



Someone tow it into Lunar orbit and start trucking Helium 3 up to fuel whatever engines get strapped on.

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite


Wow that an interesting and original take. What an idea.
I was thinking of all the pocket change that would come out to, but here you are with actual creative good ideas. Good on you, shame on me . : /

Another thought; if this were hollowed out, and then given a sufficient enough copper core running along its axis with counter spin to the outer nickel iron shell, could this thing be it's own electrical generator?



Its dimensions are 240×185×145 km, so, not counting the volume of mass that would need be removed to hollow this thing out, we'd require a source of copper that could provide a core axis 200km long with a diameter of what?

eh.

reply to post by projectvxn


Interesting - S&F

It makes one wonder if we could back track it to determine if it originated in our solar system or if it floated in from somewhere else. Could it possibly be part of a planet smashed billions of years ago? Does it lend possible support to the Niburu theory (this is a conspiracy website so thought I would throw that out there).

One things is for sure - We are completely clueless when it comes to whats out there in space.

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite


A ready made Dyson Sphere...Nice! This last summer I read a Sci-Fi trilogy (I cannot remember the name of the author) where humans started doing this, though they also heated up certain asteriods and put a spin on them which caused them to create a ready made bubble. Then they basically moved in. They were powered by Nuclear pulse propulsion.

reply to post by projectvxn


It's adding to the evidence list for a large, terrestrial type planet existing long ago in our Solar system that was obliterated during what was probably a planetary collision.

Tiamat is the name people give to a water world theorised to have existed millions of years ago and is now scattered all over our system, but mainly confined to the orbital position between Mars and Jupiter, now vacant, except for a huge asteroid and debris belt.

This fragment, could well have once been part of this mythical doomed water world, along with other Solar system minor planets (or dwarf planets) namely Ceres, Pallas, Vesta and Hygiea and others.

If there was a cataclysmic impact millions of years ago, in the vicinity of or actually involving Mars, this might have been what took Mars from a fertile watery world, to its current barren state. This might be what caused the massive basins and scarring on the Surface.

Depending on exactly how long ago this impact might have been, the debris may have been responsible for great die offs here on Earth too...but it may also have 'donated' a part of its valuable water here too.

Whatever the truth of all of this though, something caused the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the smashed remnants of a major, but unlucky planet is as good an explanation as any.

reply to post by MysterX


I agree.

A large planet used to exist where the asteroid belt currently is located.

God Bless,

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite


What a great concept for a story or movie. The few lines you replied were EPIC. Really I loved it and I wish I had more then one star to give ya.

SubTruth
reply to post by AliceBleachWhite

 

What a great concept for a story or movie. The few lines you replied were EPIC. Really I loved it and I wish I had more then one star to give ya.

Don't forget to include the crazy conspiracy theorist or two (who turns out to be right but is still portrayed as crazy), the scientist who is telling the authorities it is going to create a psi-trapezoidal conical wave which will destroy the moon and create chaos on the Earth but no one listens to him because he once predicted that the LHC was possibly going to explode and they evacuated the towns around it and it didn't happen, his ex-wife who is about to remarry and happens to be the scientist in charge of the whole program, the slick corporate CEOs who are in bed with the politicians and are going to make gazillions out of this, and the token black and gay guys and you have a Hollywood movie script ready to go.

reply to post by Xcathdra


reply to post by MysterX

Interesting ideas, maybe this is Nibiru and the collision only happened 5000 years ago and so that is why Nibiru did not make an appearance last year. And if it has taken 100 years from its discovery to study this asteroid, it could be one of many such proto-planet cores out there that we haven't noticed yet. So even if it isn't the one that was between Mars and Jupiter, doesn't mean that that one isn't out there.

reply to post by TDawgRex


I believe that the idea was first used in Larry Niven's 1966 novel World of Ptavvs. That was the starting novel of his Known Space universe. Really great collection of books and short stories, and a heck of a lot more than three. The asteroid was called "Confinement Asteroid." It was created by spinning a nickel/iron asteroid while heating it with focused light from the Sun. I think in the book he made it sound like popcorn popping. Could be my imagination on that detail. It's probably been at least ten years since I've read that one.

Someone else may have used his idea in a newer book. So maybe you read something else.

reply to post by MysterX


I'm not sure how accurate that idea that there was a planet there. Even if it were several millions (or billions) of years ago. The gravitation perturbations would still be able to be detected through the eccentricity of the orbits of all the planets. Aside from that, even if something like this were remotely possible, it would have been way before the time of humans.

1 Ceres, the largest of all the asteroids in the belt, makes up for around 25% of the total mass of those objects. It's mass is 9.43 x 10^20 kg. Using simple math, the total mass of the main belt is 3.77 x 10^21 kg.

Some comparisons:

The mass of Pluto is 1.31 x 10^22 kg. All of the main belt is only about 28.78% of the mass of Pluto.
The mass of the Moon is 7.35 x 10^22 kg. All of the main belt is only about 5.13% of the mass of the Moon.
The mass of Earth is 5.97 x 10^24 kg. All of the main belt is only about 0.06% of the mass of Earth.

My math might be off. It's late (early?), so I didn't look up a lot of specific numbers. But I hope that you get my point.

"Remnant core of a planet", it sounds so sci-fi awesome it's not even funny. It's also extremely fascinating to think that a dead planet is floating so close to us. I wonder how it once looked, if it was habitable. I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for posting it, it's an interesting subject!