NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a rare, heavy and immensely valuable asteroid called “16 Psyche” in the Solar System’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Asteroid Psyche is located at roughly 230 million miles (370 million kilometers) from Earth and measures 140 miles (226 kilometers) across, about the size of West Virginia. What makes it special is that, unlike most asteroids that are either rocky or icy, Psyche is made almost entirely of metals, just like the core of Earth, according to a study published in the Planetary Science Journal on Monday.
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Given the asteroid’s size, its metal content could be worth $10,000 quadrillion ($10,000,000,000,000,000,000), or about 10,000 times the global economy as of 2019.
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Psyche is the target of the NASA Discovery Mission Psyche, expected to launch in 2022 atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Further facts about the asteroid, including its exact metal content, will hopefully be uncovered when an orbiting probe arrives in early 2026.
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The asteroid is believed to be the dead core left by a planet that failed during its formation early in the Solar System’s life or the result of many violent collisions in its distant past.
“Short of it being the Death Star… one other possibility is that it’s material that formed very near the Sun early in the Solar System,” Elkins-Tanton told Forbes in an interview in May, 2017 interview. “I figure we’re either going to go see something that’s really improbable and unique, or something that is completely astonishing.”
Source: NASA Discovers a Rare Metal Asteroid Worth $10,000 Quadrillion | Observer
I’d invest in the NASA mission, but it’s being launched on a SpaceX vehicle, which means that Musk will either send it the wrong direction (like his car) or more likely, it will blow up.
Robin Edgar
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