NASA's Psyche Mission: Exploring a Metal-Rich Asteroid

NASA has launched its first mission to the metal asteroid Psyche, aiming to explore whether it is the exposed core of an early planetary building block. The Psyche mission will travel 2.2 billion miles over the next six years to reach the asteroid, located in the outer part of the main asteroid belt. Scientists believe Psyche could resemble the cores of rocky planets in our solar system and may have been exposed due to violent collisions. The spacecraft will use a solar electric propulsion system and arrive at the asteroid in 2029 to map its surface and determine its composition.