NASA is gearing up to launch a spacecraft to a weird metal asteroid called Psyche, one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.  

The mission, also called Psyche, aims to unravel persistent mysteries about this unusual 170-mile-wide asteroid, which appears to be extremely rich in iron, nickel, and other metals, hinting that it may be the exposed core of a long-lost world. Psyche has also earned a playful reputation as the $10 quintillion asteroid, meaning its metal resources could be worth about ten-million-million-million dollars if they were extracted.  

The Psyche spacecraft is currently on track to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at 10:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, Oct. 12, though forecasts of winds and rain may delay the launch. If the weather cooperates, NASA's live launch broadcast will begin at 9:30 AM at the link below.  

Assuming all goes to plan, the probe will travel across 2.2 billion miles and will arrive at Psyche in 2029. It will be the first mission to visit a metal world, as opposed to planetary bodies that are mostly made of rock or ice. 

Nobody knows exactly how Psyche formed, but scientists suspect it may be the core of a small, ancient  world that might have existed much earlier in the solar system's history. If Psyche is the stripped-down remnant of a core, it could reveal unprecedented insights about the centers of other planets, including Earth, which cannot be accessed by other means.