00:00 Out in the solar system there's still a class of cosmic objects we've never
00:07 closely examined. Metallic asteroids. They're orbiting the Sun out there in
00:11 the vacuum of space. But now NASA scientists say they could also tell us a
00:15 whole lot about our own home. We're pretty sure we have a good idea of
00:18 what's going on inside the earth. That is a solid iron nickel core with a
00:21 surrounding molten layer made out of the same material. But without observing it or
00:25 something extremely similar to it with our own scientific lens we can't be sure.
00:29 That's where NASA's Psyche mission comes in. Where the Space Administration is
00:33 planning to send a spacecraft to land on the Psyche asteroid. Psyche is the
00:37 largest metallic asteroid we know of. Which Jim Bell who is working with NASA
00:40 on the project says is around the width of Massachusetts. Asteroids of this size
00:44 are scientifically important because they are often remnants of our early
00:48 solar system's development. When the planets were formed and experts believe
00:51 that Psyche may have at one point been the core of a planet. NASA's mission
00:55 which is hoping to figure that out is set to take off in October and will
00:58 travel an immense 2.5 billion miles before arriving at the asteroid in
01:02 August 2029. It will study Psyche for 26 months hoping to glean not only its
01:07 composition and origin but also figure out if it was once a planetary core.
01:11 Perhaps also telling us something about what's going on under our own feet.
01:18 (upbeat music)
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