TED-Ed
Why is NASA sending a spacecraft to a metal world? - Linda T. Elkins-Tanton
2018 • E8 Jan 29, 2018 4m
In 2026, an unmanned NASA spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at 16 Psyche, a massive, metallic asteroid floating somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Why is NASA so interested in this heavy metal asteroid? Are we going to mine all that metal, or build a giant space magnet? Linda T. Elkins-Tanton explains how the real answer can be found right under our feet. Lesson by Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, animation by Eoin Duffy.