It's worth more than the whole Earth. NASA is luring for this asteroid
NASA launched a spacecraft towards the asteroid Psyche. The vehicle is set to investigate the largest of several metal-rich asteroids known in the Solar System. The value of the asteroid is believed to be higher than the value of all economies in the world.
A probe the size of a small van launched in mid-October from the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The NASA object was launched using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. It is supposed to travel a distance of about 2.17 billion miles and reach an asteroid in August 2029. Psyche, discovered in 1852, was named after a Greek goddess. It is the largest of about nine known asteroids, between the planets Mars and Jupiter, which - according to radar observations - are mainly composed of metals with a mixture of rocky material. Its diameter is about 173 miles at its widest point.
Reuters noted that the asteroid is considered a remnant of the core of an ancient protoplanet.
NASA is studying an asteroid worth more than the entire world's economy
After reaching the asteroid, the probe would orbit around it for 26 months, scanning Psyche with instruments built to measure its gravity, magnetic properties and composition. It is believed that Psyche is primarily composed of iron, nickel, gold and other metals, which are hypothetically valued at 10 trillion dollars - reported by Reuters.
It is believed that the metals contained in Psyche would be worth over 100 trillion dollars if they were found on Earth. - This is more than the value of the entire global economy - Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the lead scientist of the Psyche mission, told space.com.
According to scientists, the mission has nothing to do with space mining. Its aim is to gain insight into the formation of Earth and other rocky planets, built around cores of molten metal. A spectrometer for measuring the signatures of gamma rays and neutrons, emitted by the atoms of the asteroid, bombarded with cosmic radiation from the Sun, will enable scientists to map the composition of iron in Psyche.
The probe is set to circle the asteroid at a distance of just about 40 miles from its surface. It will end its mission in November 2031.
