NASA's Psyche spacecraft just used Mars as a slingshot
The time-lapse NASA captured along the way is unlike anything you've seen.
NASA spacecraft captures mind-bending Mars time-lapse
Imagine flying 2,800 miles above Mars at 12,000 mph. That's not science fiction. It just happened.
NASA's Psyche spacecraft recently flew past Mars — not to study it, but to use it. The spacecraft borrowed energy from Mars' own gravitational pull to slingshot itself deeper into the solar system. Scientists call it a gravity assist.
But Mars was just a pit stop. The real destination is an asteroid called 16 Psyche, and it's unlike anything else in the solar system. No rock. No ice. Just metal. It may be a skeleton of a dead planet.
And if that's true — what else is out there that we haven't found yet?
We won't have answers until summer 2029, when Psyche finally arrives. Sometimes that's enough to remember just how vast and strange the universe really is. Follow along — because when the mission gets there, you don't want to miss it.
Nobody knows what 16 Psyche looks like. This artist's illustration is our best guess. The asteroid is made of metal and possibly the skeleton of a dead planet.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
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