NSN Webinar Series:   Psyche: Journey to a Metal World
Channel: NASA Night Sky Network
Date: 2022-02-16

Join the NASA Night Sky Network on Tuesday, February 15 at 6:00pm Pacific Time (9:00pm Eastern) to hear Dr. David Williams bring us the story of a NASA mission to investigate Psyche, the largest M-type asteroid in the Solar System. 

Asteroid (16) Psyche is the largest M-type (metal-dominated) asteroid in the Solar System, and has never been explored by spacecraft.  In January 2017 NASA selected Arizona State University (ASU) to lead a Discovery-class mission to investigate this strange, new world.  The Psyche mission is preparing to launch in August 2022 – what will it find?  Please join Professor David Williams of ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, and a Psyche Mission Co-I and Deputy Imager Lead, to discuss the details of the Psyche Mission and what it may find as it explores this metal world.

About Dr. David Williams
Dr. David A. Williams is a Research Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. Dr. Williams is the Director of the Ronald Greeley Center for Planetary Studies, a NASA-funded planetary data center at ASU. He is also the Director of the NASA Planetary Aeolian Laboratory, which administers wind tunnels the Ames Research Center in California. David is currently performing research in volcanology and planetary geology, with a focus on planetary mapping, geochemical, and remote sensing studies. His current research focusses on planetary geologic mapping of bodies across the Solar System, and computer modeling of the physical and geochemical evolution of lava flows in a variety of planetary environments. He was involved with NASA’s Magellan Mission to Venus, Galileo Mission to Jupiter, Dawn Mission to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, and ESA’s Mars Express orbiter mission.  He is a member of the Janus camera team for the ESA JUICE mission, and he is currently Deputy Imager Lead and a Co-Investigator on NASA’s Psyche Mission, scheduled to launch in August 2022.  In 2014 David was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, and asteroid 10,461 DAWILLIAMS was named in his honor.

Thumbnail Credits: David Williams (inset)/ Maxar/ASU/Peter Rubin (background)
Background source: https://psyche.asu.edu/gallery/artists-conception-of-psyche-spacecraft-at-psyche-asteroid/

Psyche Mission
https://psyche.asu.edu

Dr. David Williams:
https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/203959

NSN Webinar Series Page: Current & Upcoming Event Schedule:
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news-display.cfm?News_ID=707

Night Sky Network 
https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/

Astronomical Society of the Pacific
https://astrosociety.org/