Watch Live! SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launches Psyche Asteroid Mission

On the morning of Oct. 12, NASA will be sending a high-tech spacecraft called Psyche on a 2.2 billion mile journey to an intriguing asteroid by the same name. Well, to be clear, the asteroid is known as 16 Psyche.

The goal of the Psyche mission is to study this space rock in great detail because not only is it believed to be very metal-rich, but it's also speculated to really be the leftover iron core of what once was a whole planet. And potentially, Earth's core is made of similar stuff — which means 16 Psyche could be offering us a direct tunnel to the center of our world, a place we cannot otherwise reach.