NASA announced that it plans to send a spacecraft to 16 Psyche, an asteroid thought to be made of iron and nickel.
The Psyche mission is part of the Discovery Program, which was formed in 1992 to investigate unknown aspects of this solar system.
Researchers at Arizona State University are leading the mission to learn more about 16 Psyche. The researchers believe that by learning about the asteroid, they may be able to learn more about Earth.
Scientists believe that the asteroid is a former planet that may have lost its outer core in a series of collisions in space. Researchers on the team believe that the mission might provide evidence as to how planets are formed with layers of cores, mantles, and crusts.
NASA is considering the possibility that the giant asteroid might be the inner core of an earlier planet that could have been as large as Mars.
This is an opportunity to explore a new type of world — not one of rock or ice, but of metal,” Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche’s lead researcher said in a statement. “16 Psyche is the only known object of its kind in the solar system, and this is the only way humans will ever visit a core. We learn about inner space by visiting outer space.”
Though NASA does not plan on mining the colossal asteroid or bringing it back to Earth, Elkins-Tanton believes that the amount of iron in 16 Psyche could be worth $10,000 quadrillion, according to Global News.
Psyche—the spacecraft headed to the asteroid—is scheduled to launch in October 2023 and will arrive at the asteroid in 2030.
