Space and the Solar System are home to countless asteroids. Some of these asteroids contain extremely precious metals. It has been announced that the “16 Psyche” asteroid, one of the precious celestial objects caught on our radars, is approaching towards the Earth. NASA announced that less than 100 days are left for the launch of the Psyche spacecraft, which it prepared to study this asteroid.NASA will study 10 quintillion dollar asteroids
The spacecraft’s flight software has recently been extensively tested, the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Lab said in a statement. This cleared a major obstacle that had previously caused the probe to miss its original launch date of 2022. Known as 16 Psyche, the 279-kilometer-wide asteroid is thought to be composed of gold, iron, and nickel. The value of its ore is estimated to be around 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars, or 10 quintillion dollars.
NASA announced that it collaborated with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to reach this metal-rich object in 2020. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will carry NASA’s Psyche space probe, with launch scheduled for October 5. The Psyche space probe will travel 4 billion kilometers from Earth to the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Once the spacecraft reaches its destination, it will spend at least 26 months orbiting 16 Psyche.
Unique information can be obtained
The Psyche asteroid offers a unique opportunity to discover a metal-rich object that could be part of the planetary core, the building block of an early planet. This mission of NASA will therefore be carried out purely for scientific purposes. Asteroid Psyche may hold critical information about planetary cores and how planets form.However, NASA had previously stated that the belt that Psyche is in is full of ore-rich asteroids worth 700 quintillion dollars. In fact, Psyche isn’t even the most valuable asteroid. Davida, the most valuable asteroid known, is worth $27 quintillion. While asteroids are a potentially lucrative business for the future, one should not expect large quantities of precious minerals from space to be brought back to Earth, even if it is possible. Because a sudden abundance of supply will bring down the metal prices.
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