According to various sources, NASA has their eyes on a huge golden asteroid, and this particular space body could make us all billionaires well it could if those who obtain it shared the wealth. Referred to a Psyche 16, this ‘golden egg’ is located between Mars and Jupiter, and is supposedly solid metal.
While it contains gold, it also is said to contain other precious metals such as platinum, iron, and even nickel. The Sun reports that it’s estimated total worth is a whopping $10,000 quadrillion. If the asteroid was to be brought to Earth, it could actually destroy the world’s economy, which is currently worth $75.5 trillion.
To NASA, Psyche 16 would be a monumental achievement to obtain, if it were captured, as it could give us new information regarding the creation of solar systems. Scott Moore, a veteran miner, and CEO of EuroSun mining, asteroids could be the next big gold rush. Even more, this venture is considered to be the next step for us, as Earth’s resources diminish. While the idea of scouring asteroids and things of the sort for resources sounds a bit out there or perhaps futuristic, it could become a reality at some point in the future. Honestly, the concept itself is quite amazing to me and would be truly spectacular if it were to actually happen.
Unfortunately, mining asteroids is not easy, and after NASA launches in 2022, we could expect to see them spending years orbiting Psyche 16 before they are able to actually land on it. That being said, anything is possible and as technology advances perhaps we may be capable of exactly that. While getting the things on this asteroid back here wouldn’t be easy, it might be do-able in the future though likely won’t happen during this trip as you will see below, it is only for scientific purposes.
Fox News wrote as follows on this back in June 2019 when news of this asteroid’s value began circulating:
Nasa is launching a mission to probe the asteroid in summer 2022. Dubbed the Discovery Mission, it will arrive at Psyche 16 around 2026.
But bringing back an asteroid of this value could completely wipe out our global economy.
Fortunately, the space agency is taking the trip for scientific purposes and isn’t planning on conducting any mining.
It reckons 16 Psyche is a survivor of violent hit-and-run collisions between planets which were common when the solar system was forming.
That means it could tell us how Earth’s core and the cores of the other terrestrial planets were formed.
Two space mining companies – backed by big name celebs – are gearing up for a gold rush after asteroid ownership was made legal in 2015.
While the things on this asteroid may never make their way here to our planet the fact that they exist as a whole is truly astonishing. It’s mind-blowing that something like this is even out there, isn’t it? I for one would have never imagined it in a million years.
On their website NASA wrote as follows on this space rock:
One of the most intriguing targets in the main asteroid belt, 16 Psyche is a giant metal asteroid, about three times farther away from the sun than is the Earth. Its average diameter is about 140 miles (226 kilometers) — about one-sixteenth the diameter of Earth’s Moon or about the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego. Unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy bodies, scientists think the M-type (metallic) asteroid 16 Psyche is comprised mostly of metallic iron and nickel similar to Earth’s core. Scientists wonder whether Psyche could be an exposed core of an early planet, maybe as large as Mars, that lost its rocky outer layers due to a number of violent collisions billions of years ago.
Astronomers on Earth have studied 16 Psyche in visible and infrared wavelengths, as well as radar, which suggest Psyche is shaped somewhat like a potato. Observations indicate that its dimensions are 173 miles by 144 miles, by 117 miles (that’s 279, 232 and 189 kilometers, respectively). Psyche orbits the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter at a distance ranging from 235 million to 309 million miles (378 million to 497 million kilometers) from the Sun. That’s 2.5 to 3.3 Astronomical Units (AU), with 1 AU being the distance between Earth and the Sun. Psyche takes about five Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun, but only a bit over four hours to rotate once on its axis (a Psyche “day”).
This intriguing asteroid is now the primary target of the Psyche mission. Targeted to launch in August of 2022, the Psyche spacecraft would arrive at the asteroid in early 2026, following a Mars gravity assist in 2023. Over 21 months in orbit, the spacecraft will map and study 16 Psyche’s properties using a multispectral imager, a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, a magnetometer, and a radio instrument (for gravity measurement). The mission’s goal is, among other things, to determine whether Psyche is indeed the core of a planet-size object.
What do you think about all of this? I for one can hardly wrap my head around it. While bringing something like this back to Earth would change so much, do you think it would be a bad idea or a good idea if it were considered in the future? I for one am on the fence.