Thumbnail Credits: David Williams (inset)/ Maxar/ASU/Peter Rubin (background | source)
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.
Registration and Additional information for Members:
Public Viewing Options:
The event will stream live on YouTube.
Link: https://youtu.be/qlJX4TC_suI
After the event, this recording will join past webinars featuring NASA Speakers on the NSN YouTube page.
Click here to see a list of all previous webinars
Upcoming Webinars (all webinars are at 6pm PT/9pm ET)
Public Links to Upcoming Webinars
February 15: Psyche: Journey to a Metal World
March TBD: JWST Update
Previous NSN Webinars
Images: NASA GLOBE, and Jessica Taylor
On Monday, January 10 the NASA Night Sky Network heard Jessica Taylor and Dr. Jason Welsh from NASA's Langley Research Center share with us how you can provide data to NASA even on cloudy days.
What to do when clouds fill the view of your sky? Turn this into a citizen science opportunity! Join the GLOBE Cloud Challenge: Clouds in a Changing Climate from January 15-February 15, 2022. Your observations documenting what’s in the sky are helpful to scientists. Participants are encouraged to download the GLOBE Observer app to start contributing to this volunteer science community.
On Monday, January 10 the NASA Night Sky Network heard Jessica Taylor and Dr. Jason Welsh from NASA's Langley Research Center share with us how you can provide data to NASA even on cloudy days.
What to do when clouds fill the view of your sky? Turn this into a citizen science opportunity! Join the GLOBE Cloud Challenge: Clouds in a Changing Climate from January 15-February 15, 2022. Your observations documenting what’s in the sky are helpful to scientists. Participants are encouraged to download the GLOBE Observer app to start contributing to this volunteer science community.
All past webinars are also available on the NSN YouTube page.
Last Updated: September 21, 2021
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Night Sky Network (NSN) member clubs are dedicated to bringing the wonders of space and NASA science to folks across the USA.NSN program participation provides clubs with tools and resources to assist in their public outreach.
Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram for the latest NSN news and outreach photos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for recordings of monthly astronomy webinars and archives of our outreach toolkit demonstration videos. #NightSkyNetwork #AstronomyOutreach
Night Sky Network (NSN) member clubs are dedicated to bringing the wonders of space and NASA science to folks across the USA.NSN program participation provides clubs with tools and resources to assist in their public outreach. 
The NASA Night Sky Network is managed by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The ASP is a 501c3 non-profit organization advancing science literacy through astronomy.