According to a number of reports, NASA is keeping a watch on a large golden asteroid that has the potential to make us all billionaires—at least, if those who find it decide to share the money.
This "golden egg," also known as Psyche 16, is said to be made of solid metal and is situated between Mars and Jupiter.
Even though it is supposed to include gold, other valuable metals like platinum, iron, and even nickel are also reported to be present. According to The Sun, it is worth a staggering $10,000 quadrillion overall. The planet's $75.5 trillion GDP would be destroyed if the asteroid were to be delivered to Earth.
If caught, Psyche 16 would be a momentous accomplishment for NASA since it might provide fresh insights into the genesis of solar systems. Asteroids may represent the next great gold rush, according to seasoned miner and CEO of EuroSun mining Scott Moore. Furthermore, once Earth's resources run out, this project is seen as our next move. While mining asteroids and other objects of this kind for materials may seem far-fetched or even futuristic, it may eventually become a reality. Sincerely, I find the idea itself to be rather great, and it would be incredibly spectacular if it did.
Sadly, mining asteroids is difficult, and if NASA begins in 2022, we could see them wasting years around Psyche 16 before they can really land there. Nevertheless, everything is conceivable, and as technology develops, maybe we will be able to do just that. Although it wouldn't be simple to bring the items from the asteroid back to Earth, it could be possible in the future. However, as you will see below, this journey is purely for scientific research, so it is unlikely that anything will be brought back during it.
When word of the worth of this asteroid started to spread in June 2019, Fox News published the following article on the subject:
In the summer of 2022, NASA will send a mission to explore the asteroid. Its name is the Discovery Mission, and it will reach Psyche 16 sometime in 2026.
However, bringing back an asteroid of this size may obliterate the whole world economy.
Fortunately, the space agency is traveling for scientific research and has no intention of engaging in any mining activities.
According to this theory, 16 Psyche is a survivor of the severe planet-to-planet collisions that were frequent when the solar system was formed.
As a result, it could be able to provide light on the formation of the cores of Earth and the other terrestrial planets.
Following the legalization of asteroid ownership in 2015, two space mining corporations with the backing of well-known celebrities are preparing for a gold rush.
Even while it's possible that none of the creatures on this asteroid will ever reach Earth, the very fact that they exist is absolutely amazing. That anything like this ever exists is astounding, isn't it? For me personally, I could never have envisioned it.
On this space rock, NASA published the following on their website:
16 Psyche, a massive metal asteroid that is nearly three times further from the sun than the Earth, is one of the most fascinating objects in the main asteroid belt.
Its typical diameter is around 140 miles (226 kilometers), which is equal to about the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego or one-sixteenth of the diameter of the moon. Scientists believe that the M-type (metallic) asteroid 16 Psyche is mostly made of metallic iron and nickel, much like the core of the Earth, in contrast to most other asteroids, which are rocky or ice entities.
The exposed core of an early planet, maybe larger than Mars, that shed its rocky outer layers as a result of multiple catastrophic collisions billions of years ago has led scientists to hypothesize that Psyche could be that planet.
Radar and optical and infrared observations of 16 Psyche by astronomers on Earth reveal that it resembles a potato in form. According to observations, it is 173 miles by 144 miles by 117 miles (or 279, 232, and 189 kilometers, respectively) in size.
Between Mars and Jupiter's orbits, Psyche circles the Sun at a distance of between 235 and 309 million miles (378 and 497 million kilometers). That translates to 2.5 to 3.3 astronomical units (AU), where 1 AU is the separation between Earth and the Sun. A Psyche "day" lasts only a little over four hours, yet it takes the object nearly five Earth years to complete one round of the Sun.
The mission's main objective right now is this interesting asteroid. The Psyche spacecraft, scheduled to launch in August 2022, would reach the asteroid in early 2026 after receiving a gravity assist from Mars in 2023.
The spacecraft will use a multispectral imager, a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, a magnetometer, and a radio instrument to map and analyze 16 Psyche's properties during its 21-month orbit. Determining if Psyche is indeed the core of a planet-sized object is one of the mission's objectives.
What do you think about everything? I myself have a hard time comprehending it. Do you believe that bringing something like this back to Earth would be a good or bad idea if it were thought about in the future, despite the fact that it would change so much? I, for one, am debating it.