Why is NASA sending a spacecraft to a metal world? - Linda T. Elkins-Tanton

Check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/teded View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-is-nasa-sending-a-spacecraft-to-a-metal-world-linda-t-elkins-tanton In 2026, an unmanned NASA spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at 16 Psyche, a massive, metallic asteroid floating somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Why is NASA so interested in this heavy metal asteroid? Are we going to mine all that metal, or build a giant space magnet? Linda T. Elkins-Tanton explains how the real answer can be found right under our feet. Lesson by Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, animation by Eoin Duffy. Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Simon Holst Ravn, Doreen Reynolds-Consolati, Rakshit Kothari, Melissa Sorrells, Antony Lee, Husain Mohammad, Dino Hrnjić, Max Shuai Tang, Côme Vincent, Astia Rizki Safitri, Alan Froese, Zhufeng Wang, alessandra tasso, Daniel Mardale, Jamerson Chingapanini, Gerald Onyango, Dalton Valette, Katrina Harding, Ezgi Yersu, Al the Scottish Wildcat, Katie Dean, Kin Lon Ma, Carsten Tobehn, Boris Langvand, Jeremy Fryd, Charlene You, Carolyn Corwin, rakesh Katragadda, salman bheriyani, Sergi Páez, Ishaq Al Kooheji, Janelle, Jørgen Østerpart, Karla Brilman, Cindy O., Nicu Boanda, Roz AR, Reagen O'Connor, Anh Dau, Sabrina Gonzalez, Dino, FAWWAZ GHUWAIDI, Hadi Salahshour, Clement , Micholer Miller, Charity Davenport, Miroslav Dunaev, Sarah Burns, Nick Debenedictis, Abdullah Altuwaijri, Jessie McGuire, Divina Grace Dar Santos, Rahul Kamath, Andrew Sleugh, Brian Richards, Farah Abdelwahab, Joe Meyers, Mikhail Shkirev, Raphaël LAURENT, Malcolm Callis, Sweetmilkcoco , David Matthew Ezroj, Ever Granada, fatima kried, Begum Tutuncu, Lala Arguelles, Mehmet Sencer KARADAYI, Christian Kurch, SungGyeong Bae, Patch Richy, Luis Felipe Ruiz Langenscheidt, nai tzu yang, Joe Huang, Rohan Gupta, Senjo Limbu, Martin Lau, Robson Martinho, Jason Garcia, Cailin Ramsey, Aaron Henson, and Seung Hoon Shin.