Nasa has announced a new mission to visit a mysterious metal asteroid in the heart of the solar system which could be the core of a long lost planet.
The strange chunk of metal, named 16 Psyche, is made of iron and nickel, similar to the Earth’s core, and scientists think it could be the remnants of a Mars-sized planet which existed just a few million years after the birth of the Sun.
Psyche was first spotted by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis in 1852 and named after the Greek goddess of the soul and wife of Cupid.
Originally it was thought to be a normal asteroid of rock and ice, but in the 1980s astronomers were astonished when radar readings showed Psyche was actually made of metal. Nothing similar has ever been found.
post by RTTP DEPARTMENT OF GTFO at Jan 5,2017 2:49pm
GTFO with this hipster poser metal asteroid
post by RTTP DEPARTMENT OF FIX'D at Jan 5,2017 3:06pm
