
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley,
Apr. 8, 2026.
The NASA Psyche mission is on its way to orbit a small but immensely ancient world in our asteroid belt: A metallic object, the first humans will ever have visited. When our solar system was in its infancy, thousands of planetesimals (tiny planet-like objects) formed in less than a million years. Many planetesimals later melted, allowing metal cores to form inside rocky mantles. One of these metal cores may be revealed in the asteroid (16) Psyche. Dr. Elkins-Tanton, the Mission Lead, takes us behind the scenes in planning and carrying out this remarkable mission of exploration, which launched in 2023, and updates us of where we are over two years post-launch.
By Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures4.7
1212 ratings
Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley,
Apr. 8, 2026.
The NASA Psyche mission is on its way to orbit a small but immensely ancient world in our asteroid belt: A metallic object, the first humans will ever have visited. When our solar system was in its infancy, thousands of planetesimals (tiny planet-like objects) formed in less than a million years. Many planetesimals later melted, allowing metal cores to form inside rocky mantles. One of these metal cores may be revealed in the asteroid (16) Psyche. Dr. Elkins-Tanton, the Mission Lead, takes us behind the scenes in planning and carrying out this remarkable mission of exploration, which launched in 2023, and updates us of where we are over two years post-launch.

350 Listeners

1,356 Listeners

321 Listeners

838 Listeners

2,882 Listeners

566 Listeners

231 Listeners

1,065 Listeners

2,367 Listeners

323 Listeners

384 Listeners

106 Listeners

151 Listeners

68 Listeners

572 Listeners