Wedged between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the main asteroid belt contains over 1 million rocky objects, but perhaps few of them are as intriguing as Psyche. The metal-rich asteroid might have once been an ancient planetary building block that was stripped of its outer rocky shell as our solar system came to be. What remains of Psyche may hold the answers as to how Earth and its neighboring planets were formed, and a namesake mission is on the case to probe the asteroid for clues.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 20, 2023 -
With its crushing atmospheric pressure, clouds of sulfuric acid, and searing surface temperature, Venus is an especially challenging place to study. But scientists know that observing its surface ca