Early Planet Formation: Exploration Goals for NASA’s Lucy and Psyche Mission – Prof. Richard Binzel (MIT)

Title: Early Planet Formation: Exploration Goals for NASA’s Lucy and Psyche Mission

Speaker: Prof. Richard Binzel (MIT)

Abstract:
Two NASA spacecraft missions, Lucy and Psyche, will explore distant
asteroids in our solar system that provide a window to the earliest
era of planet formation.  Lucy, launched in 2021 is en route to
explore a group of “Trojan asteroids” orbiting at Jupiter’s distance
in a 1:1 resonance at the L4 and L5 Lagrange points.  The homogeneity
or diversity of objects captured in these resonances may give direct
evidence of early chaotic mixing in our solar system (Nice Model).
NASA’s Psyche mission seeks to study the 222 km diameter main-belt
asteroid Psyche, one of the highest density asteroids known, which may
be the remnant iron core of an early protoplanet.  The status of the
Psyche mission will be discussed, as its launch is under review,
following an August 2021 postponement related to pandemic delays.