An asteroid's worth is speculative but potentially enormous, with NASA's target, 16 Psyche, estimated to hold metals worth around $10,000 quadrillion (or more), dwarfing the global economy, but this value is theoretical because mining technology doesn't exist, and bringing such vast amounts of metal to Earth would crash markets. Its real value lies in scientific understanding, as it might be the exposed core of a protoplanet, rich in nickel, iron, gold, and platinum.
Mining the Asteroid Belt from Mars
16 Psyche in the main belt could have over $10,000 Quadrillion United States dollar worth of minerals. NASA is planning a mission for 10 October 2023 for the Psyche orbiter to launch and get to the asteroid by August 2029 to study.
Known as 16 Psyche, this massive space rock is estimated to be worth a staggering $700 quintillion. To put that into perspective, that amount of wealth would be enough to make every single person on Earth a billionaire. What makes this asteroid so extraordinary is its composition.
Impacts of projectiles as large as one km in diameter are generally thought to explode before reaching the sea floor, but it is unknown what would happen if a much larger impactor struck the deep ocean. The lack of a crater, however, does not mean that an ocean impact would not have dangerous implications for humanity.
On April 13, 2029, the large asteroid Apophis (99942) will have a very close, but safe flyby of Earth, passing within 32,000 kilometers (20,000 miles) of our planet—closer than some satellites—and will be visible to the naked eye in the night sky from parts of the Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa, Asia) as a bright, fast-moving point of light. This rare event offers scientists a unique opportunity to study an asteroid of its size (about 375 meters wide) up close, with missions like NASA's OSIRIS-APEX and ESA's Ramses planned to observe it.
Observations eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth in 2029, when it will pass the Earth at a distance of about 38,000 kilometres (23,600 mi) above the surface. It will also have a close encounter with the Moon, passing about 96,000 km from the lunar surface.
While there aren't tons of gold nuggets just floating freely in space, there is valuable metal locked inside some asteroids. For example, one 10-meter stony (S-type) asteroid could contain up to 650,000 kilograms of iron, nickel, and other metals, including roughly 50 kilograms of gold, platinum, and rhodium.
Its full name is Apophis 99942. After Apophis was discovered in 2004, the asteroid was given a 2.7% chance of hitting Earth in 2029, causing a great deal of media attention. It also for a time had a small chance of hitting Earth in 2036. Additional observations have shown it will not hit Earth in 2029 or in 2036.
So far, no known potentially-hazardous asteroid will hit the Earth in 2035, excluding those that are too difficult to be detected. The picture above is the Torino Scale, which is how we rate the potential danger of an incoming asteroid, whether attention by astronomers is merited or not, and when to…
Psyche 16: The Asteroid Holding $100,000 Quadrillion in Gold.
In recent weeks, the chances of a so-called city-killer asteroid, 2024 YR4, hitting Earth in 2032 seemed to be more and more likely. However, NASA, the European Space Agency and others have since reduced those odds to less than 1%.
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Rare asteroid the size of Massachusetts orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, made entirely of iron and nickel is worth an estimated $10,000 quadrillion ($10,000,000,000,000,000,000). Known as 16 Psyche, it was discovered back in 1852.
On April 13, 2029 (which happens to be Friday the 13th), something unsettling will happen. A decent-sized asteroid, the 1,100-foot-wide Apophis, will pass so close to Earth it'll be visible in the sky from certain places. Crucially, the giant rock will not strike our humble planet.
A 300m-wide asteroid will not hit the Earth in 2036, US astronomers say. It was thought there was a one-in-200,000 chance that it could strike on 13 April 2036, but revised calculations have now ruled this out. Instead, Nasa scientists said it would not get closer than 31,000km as it flies past on this date.
An asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has roughly a 0.004% chance of hitting Earth in about eight years, NASA says — with the space agency saying it "no longer poses a significant impact hazard to Earth" — though at one point earlier its estimate reached as high as 3.1%.
“It's totally 100% true – nearly all the elements in the human body were made in a star and many have come through several supernovas.”
While no planet in our solar system is entirely made of gold, the asteroid 16 Psyche is believed to contain an astonishing amount of gold and other precious metals. Located between Mars and Jupiter, this metallic giant could be worth trillions—yes, trillions! —of dollars.
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Although it's unlikely, asteroid could hit Earth in 2030
The massive space rock--the first object to score above zero on the Torino hazard scale, which ranks the danger of an extraterrestrial impact--has about 1 chance in 500 of colliding with Earth in 2030, astronomers estimate.