July 31, 2026
Comet Confusion and the Psyche Mission's Mars Encounter
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SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 91 The near-Earth asteroid that’s actually a comet Astronomers have confirmed that the near Earth Asteroid 1998 SH2 is actually a comet further blurring the lines between the two types of celestial bodies. Psyche’s gravity assist Mars Flyby NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has undertaken a successful gravity assist flyby of the red planet Mars to help slingshot the probe to its ultimate target – the strange metallic asteroid 16-Psyche. China expanding its space station As NASA looks at winding down and de-orbiting the International Space Station in 2030, Beijing has announced new plans to double the size of its Tiangong Space Station. The Science Report New clues about how the body’s nervous system senses warm and cool temperatures. Alarming pesticide levels found in the food of endangered Western Australian Carnaby's cockatoos. Scientists have discovered evidence of an ancient species of snake that lived underground. Study warns working from home may not have a significant impact on your carbon footprint. Skeptics guide to multiple Ohio Bigfoot sighting. Our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-with-stuart-gary--2458531/support.
This episode of SpaceTime is brought to you with the support of NordVPN. Now more than ever, you need a reliable VPN service to protect you online. Governments, bad actors and who knows are all trying to access your details online. Get protected by the best - NordVPN. Check out our special deal by visiting nordvpn.com/stuartgary and help support the show at the same time. Win/win!
SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 91 The near-Earth asteroid that’s actually a comet Astronomers have confirmed that the near Earth Asteroid 1998 SH2 is actually a comet further blurring the lines between the two types of celestial bodies. Psyche’s gravity assist Mars Flyby NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has undertaken a successful gravity assist flyby of the red planet Mars to help slingshot the probe to its ultimate target – the strange metallic asteroid 16-Psyche. China expanding its space station As NASA looks at winding down and de-orbiting the International Space Station in 2030, Beijing has announced new plans to double the size of its Tiangong Space Station. The Science Report New clues about how the body’s nervous system senses warm and cool temperatures. Alarming pesticide levels found in the food of endangered Western Australian Carnaby's cockatoos. Scientists have discovered evidence of an ancient species of snake that lived underground. Study warns working from home may not have a significant impact on your carbon footprint. Skeptics guide to multiple Ohio Bigfoot sighting. Our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-with-stuart-gary--2458531/support.
The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.
WEBVTT
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This is Spacetime Series twenty nine, episode ninety one, for
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broadcast on the thirty first of July twenty twenty six.
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Coming up on space Time, the Nearest asteroid that turned
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out to be a comet, massas Psyche spacecraft's gravity assist
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flyby of Mars, and China's about to double the size
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of its space station. All that and more coming up
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on Spacetime.
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Welcome to Spacetime with Stewart Gary.
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Astronomers have confirmed that the Nearest asteroid, nineteen ninety eight
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s H two is actually a comet, further blurring the
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lines between these two different types of celestial bodies. The
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problem was the object originally looked like a typical asteroid
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in most telescope images, showing none of the usual comet
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like characteristics such as degassing, a fuzzy coma nucleus, and
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cometary tails. But the unusual thing was this asteroid was
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on a comet like orbit. The new findings were reported
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in the journal Nature Astronomy based on fresh more detailed observations.
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The puzzle began back on August twenty eighth, twenty twenty five,
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when nineteen ninety eight SH two passed within three million
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kilometers of the Earth. During its four and a half
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year orbit around the Sun, astronomers took the opportunity to
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observe the asteroid with NASA's Deep Space Network Planetary radar system.
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They had calculated its position using data from previous orbits
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and factored in the effects that the gravity of the
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Sun and planets would have had on its path. But
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when the asteroid didn't show up where they expected, they
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realized that something unanticipated must have been influencing its motion
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through space. By using optical astrometry to precisely measure the
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object's position in the sky, they were finally able to
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identify the cause. Studies lead auth to David Fernerccia from
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NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in pasad Into, California, says that
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after measuring the non gravitational perturbations affecting the motion of
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nineteen ninety eight SH two, his team recognized that they
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weren't compatible with the object being an asteroid and began
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to suspect that it may well be an active commerce instead.
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Although nineteen ninety eight SH two's orbit around the Sun
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has been well tracked, from nineteen ninety eight to twenty sixteen,
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the object had completed two solar orbits since then without
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any additional observations. Analyzing all the observations collected since the
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object's discovery back in nineteen ninety eight, the authors determined
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the perturbations too nineteen ninety eight sh two's motion and
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hypothesized that the object must be generating a small amount
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of its own thrust, possibly by venting gases into space,
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and that was what was causing it to deviate from
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its projected path.
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Now.
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This venting results from the sun heating ices mixed with
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rocky material, turning the ice into a gas. With regular comets,
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this activity forms the trademark bright tail and coma as
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the gas and dust surrounding the comets nucleus. But when
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an object produces its gas and dust in much smaller quantities,
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its tail and coma may not be detectable by most observatories.
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So the August twenty twenty five close approach to Earth
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provided the perfect opportunity for for Nurture and colleagues to
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gather observational evidence for any possible visible cometary activity. They
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use the Canada Frantz Hawaii Telescope on Monacau, as well
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as the European Southern Observatory's Danish telescope at Lacilia and
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its VEL two or very large telescope at Parnell, both
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in Chile, to study this object in more detail in
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the process, revealing a weak but clear cometary tale. As
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a result, nineteen ninety eight SH two has now been
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given an additional cometary designation P nineteen ninety eight SH two.
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The findings also shed light on another even more unusual
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class of objects, known as dark comets. Like P nineteen
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ninety eight SH two, dark comets exhibit significant irregularities or
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perturbations in their trajectories, but they lack other visible evidence
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of comet like activity. There's no coma, no tail, and
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no visible outgassing. These distinct objects fall into two distinct populations,
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larger ones with orbits similar to those of Jupiter family comets.
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These are short period comets with highly elliptical or eccentric orbits,
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and smaller comets that orbit closer into the Sun. Since
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the twenty sixteen discovery of the first dark comet, that
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a dozen more have been identified. The author suggest that
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many of the larger dark comets, which have orbits like
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P nineteen ninety eight SH two's could turn out to
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be regular comets. That's if astronomers can get the opportunity
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to observe them with more powerful telescopes ones capable of
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imaging incredibly faint objects. Fernature says the work shows the
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importance of continuously tracking near eth objects. Detecting these perturbations
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would be an important diagnostic tool for planetary defense that
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will help astronomers understand which objects may be commets rather
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than asteroids, how their orbits evolve, and how that could
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influence their chances of impacting the Earth. This is space
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time still to come NASAs Psyche spacecraft undertakes the successful
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gravity assist fly by over the red planet Mars, and
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as NASA prepares to wind down in the orbit the
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International Space Station, China announces plans to double the size
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of its own space station. All that and more still
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to come on space Time. This episode of space Time
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is brought to you by NordVPN, space Time's official VPN service.
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NORDVPND slash Stewart Garry. NASA's Psyche spacecraft has undertaken a
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successful gravity assayst flyby of the red planet Mars, a
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maneuver which will help slingshot the probe to its ultimate target,
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the strange metallic asteroid sixteen Psarchi, the two hundred and
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twenty six kilometawide metal rich asteroid orbits the Sun in
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the main asteroid built between Mars and Jupiter. It contains
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about one percent of the entire mass of the main
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asteroid belt and is primarily composed of iron, nickel, and
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precious metals, giving it a hypothetical mining valuation exceeding ten
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quintillion US dollars. Psaki was originally chosen for the mission
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because it was thought to be the exposed metallic core
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of a larger, differentiated planetary body which had its metal
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and cross stripped away during some sort of ancient impact event.
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That made Psyche a prime target for astronomers wanting to
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study the internal structures of planets. However, as they began
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getting more and more data on the asteroid. There received
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mass and density observations that were inconsistent with Psyche being
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a remnant planetary core. That led to a new hypothesis
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suggesting that Psyche had been disrupted and then gravitationally reaccreted
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into a mix of metal and silicates that would make
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it a potential parent body for the meso cyderites class
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of stony iron meteorites. Another hypothesis suggests that Psyche may
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be a differentiated object like Serious Investor, but one that
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experienced a type of iron volcanism called ferr volcanism while
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still curling.
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Now.
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If correct, this model predicts that metal would be highly
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enriched only in those regions containing relic volcanic centers of view,
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supported by recent radar observations. Meanwhile, by this time, the
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Psyche spacecraft or relaunched on its mission. It aated its
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close encarter with Mars, using the pl and its gravity
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to gain speed and slightly tilting its trajectory. The flyby
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also gave mission managers an opportunity to prep for the
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science they'll be conducting when they finally reached the middle
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rich asteroid Psyche. In twenty twenty nine, they tested the
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spacecraft science instruments, confirming all were operating nominally, providing data
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that match to what NASA already knew about Mars, and
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also providing a few new insights about the red planet
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along the way. Psyche's principal investigator, Lindy Elkins Tantent from
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the University of California, Berkeley, says the spacecraft's imager, MAGNETOMETA,
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and gamma ray in neutrons spectrometer teams all worked overtime
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to make full use of the planetary encounter, and all
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instruments delivered great results. The gamma ray in neutrons spectrometer,
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which helped scientists determine the chemical elements that make up
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the asteroid surface material, got a real workout during the
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flyby as high energy cosmic rays bombarded Mars. Elements on
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the red planet's surface absorb energy many neutrons and gamma
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rays of varying energy levels. By measure these emissions, scientists
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can match them the properties of known elements in order
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to determine what the body's made of. Or The Mars
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fly by altitude of four thousand, six hundred nine kilom
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as was too far away to measure gamma rays neutrons
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escaping the planet's surface and atmosphere could be detected. The
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mission's magnetometer is designed to measure Psyche's magnetic field, and
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it was designed to test the idea that it could
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be the metallic core of a planet tesimal, the building
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block of a rocky planet. While this instrument's been constantly
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measuring the solar wind's magnetic field throughout its cruise phase,
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including when occasional chronal mass ejections washed over the spacecraft,
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Mars was the first magnetic field signature of a celestial
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body that the magnetometer was able to measure. As the
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spacecraft passed close to the red planet, the magnetometer saw
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an increased uptick in magnetic field, corresponding to the bowshock region,
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where the solar wind slams into the planet's magnetic field. Meanwhile,
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the spacecraft's Multi Spectral imager, a pair of identical cameras
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designed to photograph the surface of the asteroid in different
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ways lengths, delivered some stunning views of Mars during the flyby.
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Because of the high phase angle at which the spacecraft
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approached the red planet, Mars initially appeared as nothing more
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than a thin, bright crescent with sunlight scattering through its atmosphere.
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During close approach, the imager team captured detailed views of
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the Martian surface, including windblown craters, the South Polar ice cap,
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the large double ringed Huygen's crater, and the two Martian moons,
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Phobos and de Mos. Psychi project manager Bob Mays, from
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massa's Jet Propotional Laboratory in passing into California, says that
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Psychi spacecraft remains in great shape and is now headed
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directly towards its ultimate target. He says the probes on
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schedule to resume sustain thrusting using its solar electric proportion
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system in a couple of months time. This report from
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mass A TV.
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For a fleeting moment. On May fifteenth, twenty twenty six,
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NASA's Psyche spacecraft drew close enough to Mars to see
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its craters, calibrate its instruments, and then it kept going,
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coming within two eight hundred and sixty four miles of
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the red planet's surface. The Psyche mission got a critical
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gravity assist on its way toward the metal rich asteroid.
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Psyche analyzing radio signals between the spacecraft and NASA's deep
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space network Psyche's flight team confirmed Mars gave the spacecraft
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a one thousand mile per hour boost and shifted its
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orbital plane relative to the Sun by more than three degrees,
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setting it almost perfectly on its plan trajectory to arrive
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at Asteroid Psyche in the summer of twenty twenty nine.
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During the flyby, Psyche's imagers, magnetometer, and gamma ray and
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neutrons spectrometer instruments were powered up and collected data to
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take advantage of the valuable calibration opportunity the close approach offered,
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comparing its measurements to surface and atmospheric data from several
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other Mars missions. Psyche's spectrometer measured neutrons coming from the
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red planet's surface during close approach, something it will do
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at Asteroid Psyche to be understand what it's made of.
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The magnetometer detected Mars magnetic field interacting with the Sun's
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plasma as the spacecraft passed through the planet's bowshock, a
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trial run for when the instrument will measure the asteroid's magnetism,
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and Psyche's multi spectral imager was especially active.
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An event like this takes a ton of planning. We
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like to use a system called cosmographia to simulate everything
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in advance. You know, how close do we need those
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images to be as we pass really close to Mars
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in order to see enough of an overlap that we
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can make a huge mosaic out of it. That gives
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us a beautiful opportunity to see the big picture and
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to really put it all together.
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As a bonus, Psyche's multi spectral imager captured Mars from
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a rare perspective.
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Coming in at such a high phase crescent. Only four
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percent of Mars was illuminated, and with that we could
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see the atmosphere around it glowing.
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So you could see clouds on Mars.
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It was really quiet as the three of us just
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kind of sat back there looking at it. My favorite
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image is the one that looks like an and I
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love how it starts with Mars as a really tiny
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little crescent, and then every day it gets slightly bigger
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and slightly bigger until we have fourteen images stacked up,
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so it gives a nice perspective on the speed the
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spacecraft is traveling. Yet, the detail that we were able
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to see in some of these terrain I personally was
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blown away. The southern polar cap Puygan's Crater. I think
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the wind streaked terrain was really interesting. It shows like
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