NASA To Send Probe For Jupiter’s Mysterious Asteroids

Jupiter has 67 moons. But what fewer people know is that the planet is also accompanied by two gigantic clusters of asteroids that orbit the Sun in roughly the same path. These asteroids are still a mystery, and thus, NASA announced that it will be investigating the celestial bodies via two new space missions.

Gizmodo reported that as part of the Discovery Program, NASA is launching two new space missions, named Psyche and Lucy. These will deploy spacecraft for the cause. However, their missions are distinct: Psyche will visit a giant metal asteroid in 2030, while Lucy will investigate a half-dozen Trojan asteroids along the planet's orbital plane in the years 2017 to 2033. These explorations are set to help scientists gain a better understanding of the asteroids and how they got locked in to Jupiter's gravitational field.

Having Trojan objects orbit around a planet is not that unusual: Mars, Neptune and even Earth all have their Trojan objects, but Jupiter's swarm is unlike any other. In fact, these things, which are called Jovian Trojans, are organized into two giant clumps that joined Jupiter during their own 12-year journey around the Sun, trapped by the planet's own gravitational influence.

The satellite set to study them, Lucy, is scheduled to launch in October 2021 and will visit an asteroid in the main asteroid belt in 2025 and will then study six Trojan asteroids between 2027 and 2033, reported CBS News. Jupiter's Trojan asteroids are believed to be planetary building blocks that have somehow formed far from the Sun before they were captured by Jupiter's gravity.

Psyche's exploration of a 130-mile wide metallic asteroid, on the other hand, could be more of a core of an ancient Mars-sized planet that arrived in the area due to violent collisions from billions of years ago. The Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the Solar System and could be the only way for humans to ever have visited a planet's core.

Psyche principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton shared, "This is an opportunity to explore a new type of world - not one of rock or ice, but of metal."