NASA looks to be all set to conduct a study on an asteroid which is called 16 Psyche which the space agency has said will give us an idea on how our solar system was born. The Psyche mission is basically a journey to a unique metal asteroid which is currently orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

The asteroid measures about 130 miles (210 kms) in diameter and consists of iron and nickel – which is similar to Earth’s core. A NASA report states,”The Psyche mission will explore one of the most intriguing targets in the main asteroid belt – a giant metal asteroid, known as 16 Psyche, about three times farther away from the sun than is the Earth. This asteroid measures about 130 miles (210 kilometres) in diameter and, unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy bodies, is thought to be comprised mostly of metallic iron and nickel, similar to Earth’s core. Scientists wonder whether Psyche could be an exposed core of an early planet that could have been as large as Mars, but which lost its rocky outer layers due to a number of violent collisions billions of years ago.”

The mission goals are, according to NASA:

• Understand a previously unexplored building block of planet formation: iron cores. 
• Look inside terrestrial planets, including Earth, by directly examining the interior of a differentiated body, which otherwise could not be seen.
• Explore a new type of world. For the first time, examine a world made not of rock and ice, but metal. 

NASA explains, “The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, one of the building blocks of our solar system.

Deep within rocky, terrestrial planets – including Earth – scientists infer the presence of metallic cores, but these lie unreachably far below the planets’ rocky mantles and crusts. Because we cannot see or measure Earth’s core directly, Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created terrestrial planets.

The mission is led by Arizona State University. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for mission management, operations and navigation. The spacecraft’s solar-electric propulsion chassis will be built by Maxar (formerly SSL) with a payload that includes an imager, magnetometer, and a gamma-ray spectrometer.”

The mission will launch in 2022 and will arrive on the Psyche asteroid in 2026. The total observation period will be 21 months in orbit and will be studying Psyche’s properties.