NASA to Voyage to 'Golden Asteroid' Worth $10,000 Quadrillion This Fall
requerdanos writes:
Scientists hope studying the rare asteroid will provide new insights into our own planet:
Riches beyond our wildest dreams are apparently within reach--at least, within the reach of NASA--in the form of an asteroid made of gold and other metals valued in the neighborhood of ten thousand quadrillion dollars.
[Psyche,] the ultra-valuable asteroid-which appears to be made largely of iron, nickel, gold and other rare metals-orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. It measures 140 miles wide and is shaped somewhat like a potato, according to astronomers.
It's been said that Psyche could be worth $10,000 quadrillion-more than the entire economy on our planet.
[...] The Psyche mission would be NASA's first-ever visit to a world rich in metal, rather than rock or ice. The spacecraft is expected to reach [the] asteroid in August 2029[.]
Journal Reference:
Becker, Tracy et. al. HST UV Observations of Asteroid (16) Psyche, The Planetary Science Journal (DOI: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/abb67e)
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