The story looks like something out of a science fiction movie, but it is a reality that is in the sights of NASA: in the vastness of space is an asteroid worth more than our planet’s global economy.
It is about Discovered in 1852, asteroid Psyche 16 measures 226 kilometers in diameter and is located between Mars and Jupiter, about 370 million kilometers from Earth.
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Last October, a study used the space telescope Hubble to get a more detailed view of this asteroid, which today is considered by the scientific community to be one of the most valuable known.
Psyche 16 is on NASA’s radar, along with Space X, the company of famed billionaire Elon Musk, planning a reconnaissance mission for 2022. But why is there so much interest?
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Well, this asteroid is a giant rock found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Several observations indicate that it is mainly made of metals and experts estimate that it was part of the core of a planet that could not be formed, which could provide clues as to how Earth’s core and those of other planets were formed.
In an interview with the BBC, Tracy Becker, planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, United States, and who is part of the most recent research on the surface of this giant rock, said:
“We’ve seen other meteorites that are mostly metal, but what makes Psyche unique is that it could be made entirely of iron and nickel.”.
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And not only that. It is believed that the asteroid could contain platinum and gold in addition to iron and nickel, which is exactly where its value lies. In fact, some call it that ‘the golden asteroid‘.
It’s hard to determine what your current net worth on Earth would be, but a 2019 projection estimates that the aggregate economic value of all Psyche metals could be in excess of $ 10,000 trillion.
This is the sketch of the spaceship that 16 Psyche will explore.
So taking into account that the value of the world economy was $ 142 trillion in 2019, according to the German data portal Statista, It could then be said that Psyche minerals are worth about 70,000 times more.
Regarding a potential exploration, it is known that Space X and NASA plan to launch a discovery ship (see image) in 2022 that would reach the asteroid in 2026, and this would be the first mission NASA would investigate a metal mass instead of being formed by rocks and ice.
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“For 21 months in orbit, the spacecraft will map and study 16 properties of Psyche using a multispectral imager, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, a magnetometer and a radio instrument (to measure gravity). measure) “, explains the POT.
In particular, he adds: “One of the objectives of the mission is to determine whether Psyche is really the core of an object the size of a planet”.
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