Space provides a dark backdrop for this image, with small twinkling stars dotting the background. At the center of the image is the artist’s illustration of the Psyche asteroid with deep craters and metal all around. The Psyche spacecraft is in the front, with the main body in the middle of large solar arrays on each side. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUALT

Let’s Explore a Metal-Rich Asteroid 🤘

Between Mars and Jupiter, there lies a unique, metal-rich asteroid named Psyche. Psyche’s special because it looks like it is part or all of the metallic interior of a planetesimal—an early planetary building block of our solar system. For the first time, we have the chance to visit a planetary core and possibly learn more about the turbulent history that created terrestrial planets.

Here are six things to know about the mission that’s a journey into the past: Psyche.

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