A NASA spacecraft rounded Mars in May heading towards its target: 16 Psyche, an ancient asteroid belt object largely made of metal. Formed at the very beginning of the solar system’s 4.5-billion-year history, Psyche could hold clues about metal cores of rocky planets. The mission’s principal investigator, Lindy Elkins-Tanton, will give an update and insight into Psyche at a Cornell talk Sept. 11. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State Univ./Space Systems Loral/Peter Rubin

Elkins-Tanton, director of the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, will visit the Ithaca campus as this year’s Terzian Lecturer, hosted by the Department of Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). Her public lecture, “The NASA Psyche Mission: First Journey to a Metal World,” is scheduled for Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. in Rockefeller Hall, Schwartz Auditorium, with observing time at the Fuertes Observatory following. 

In the lecture, Elkins-Tanton will discuss what is known and hypothesized about the asteroid, the spacecraft built to study it and what we might discover when spacecraft and asteroid meet in 2029. She will also give updates about the mission spacecraft, which flew by Mars on May 15, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed. 

“Lindy has done amazing science, including as PI of the Psyche Mission, exploring a world made not of rock or ice, but of metal,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, professor of astronomy (A&S) and director of the Carl Sagan Institute. “She also cares deeply about communicating about science. She’s written books on how to build teams and a beautiful book about her journey as a scientist. It will be a treat for everyone to listen to her and interact with her.”

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.