An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A → main belt asteroid comprised mostly of metallic iron and nickle (→ M-type asteroid). Psyche is a potato-shaped object with dimensions 279 × 232 × 189 km.
Its average diameter, about 226 km, is about sixteenth the diameter of the → Moon.

Psyche could be an exposed core of an early → planet that lost its rocky outer layers due to a number of violent collisions billions of years ago.

The asteroid revolves around the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter at a distance ranging from 378 million to 497 million km from the Sun (2.5 to 3.3 Astronomical Units). Its revolution period is 4.99 Earth years and rotates about its axis every 4.196 h.

This asteroid is the primary target of NASA’s Psyche mission. Aimed to launch in August of 2022, the Psyche spacecraft would arrive at the asteroid in early 2026, following a Mars gravity assist in 2023. Over 21 months in orbit, the spacecraft will map and study Psyche’s properties using a multi-spectral imager, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, a magnetometer, and a radio instrument (for gravity measurement). The mission’s goal is, among other things, to determine whether Psyche is indeed the core of a planet-sized object.

See also: Psyche was discovered by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis on March 17, 1852. He named the asteroid for Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul who was born mortal and married Eros (Roman Cupid), the god of Love.