All About 16 Psyche - The Asteroid Which Can Make You Quadrillionaire

All About 16 Psyche - The Asteroid Which Can Make You Quadrillionaire

It is an artist’s concept of asteroid 16 Psyche. Credit: Maxar/ASU/P.Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Discovered by the great Italian scientist Annibale de Gasparis, asteroid 16 Psyche has been one of the most intriguing objects for scientists for many years.

According to the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), it is located around 400 million kilometers away from the Earth which is 250 million miles and has a diameter of around 225 kilometers or 140 miles in length!

It revolves around the sun between the orbits of Mars & Jupiter, in the Asteroid Belt, and could be more than ten thousand quadrillion dollars ($ 10,000 * 10^11) of worth which is a thousand times more than the entire economy of our planet!

Overview

Credit: Maxar/ASU/P.Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Asteroid 16 Psyche is one of the most massive objects in our solar system other than terrestrial planets. It is massive enough to have its gravitational effect on nearby objects.

Scientists often refer to it to be the "rarest glimpse" as metallic asteroids like this which are rich in the iron-nickel composition are not usually found in our Solar System. “We’ve seen meteorites that are mostly metal, but Psyche could be unique in that it might be an asteroid that is totally made of iron and nickel," said Dr. Tracy Becker a planetary scientist and the author of the paper published in Planetary Science Journal

This metallic asteroid is thought to be a core of a "protoplanet", a planet that never completed its formation and reached its maturity or it may be exposed out in space after an intense collision between two giant planets millions of years ago!

A recent study at Hubble Space Telescope was performed in which the asteroid was observed at two specific points of its rotation to get both sides of it into view. Researchers claimed that this one-of-a-kind asteroid is extremely dense and metallic.

5 short facts about 16 Psyche

Now, let me tell you 5 short facts about the 'golden' asteroid - 16 Psyche.

Fact no. 1 - It was discovered by Italian scientist Annibale De Gasparis on 17 March 1852.

Annibale De Gasparis - The man who has found 16 Psyche.

Fact no. 2 - It is named after the mythological Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche.

Fact no. 3 - It takes around 4.99 yrs to complete its one revolution around the sun which is approximately 1823 days.

Fact no. 4 - It has such a less mass that is less than 1% of the mass of Earth's moon.

Fact no. 5 - It is the 16th asteroid discovered by scientists which also explains that why is it called '16' Psyche.

16 Psyche - The asteroid which can make you Quadrillionaire

This weird, potato-shaped asteroid is expected to be made of 90% metal and 10% rock with metals including the rarest ones like platinum, cobalt, iridium, rhenium, and rhodium and has a huge solid gold core at its center as explained by the scientists. The presence of huge amount of these rare elements makes it the most valuable alien object ever found by humanity!

A recent study shows that the worth of iron alone is around 10 quintillion dollars, thus increasing the net worth to around 700 quintillion dollars which is enough to give 90 billion dollars to everyone currently living on the earth & by this you will not fail to surpass the net worth of Elon Musk!

Credit: Maxar/ASU/P.Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech.

But in an interview, NASA Psyche mission's lead scientist Lindy-Elkins Tanton explained that there is no way to bring that asteroid to Earth. She further added, that to bring that much giant asteroid we need to have a huge amount of technology and infrastructure that is not foreseeable in the distant future.

But, let's roughly imagine that somehow we or our future generations managed to bring that precious and over-priced asteroid to Earth but there is another problem that awaits to be sorted out...!

Researchers and experts believe that the bringing of 16 Psyche to our planet or mining its resources in space (Asteroid Mining) would definitely result in a flow of huge amounts of metals in the market which would ultimately collapse it. It will reduce the value of gold to negligible.

It would increase inflation but good thing is that the increase in the supply of gold will reduce its shortage and then it will be used in a wide variety of things in which it hasn't been used till now, for instance, it would make us capable of making satellites for space explorations with a good amount of gold-covering around it. This may further reduce the price of creating an artificial satellite.

What is NASA's Psyche mission?

This highly expensive asteroid has become an important target of NASA's Psyche mission as NASA plans to launch a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to have more detailed research of the asteroid.

This artist's concept shows NASA Psyche mission orbiting 16 Psyche. Credit: Maxar/ASU/P.Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech.

This unmanned mission will start in August 2022 and end up reaching the asteroid in early 2026. This first time ever happening space mission would be in orbit for over 21 months ie. 1 3/4 years and would be using multiple advanced instruments to understand and study its properties.

But this mission is not to mine the precious metals but to determine whether Psyche is indeed a core of an early protoplanet or made from an unmelted metal. This study will also help us get nearer to the formation of terrestrial planets.

NASA says that the Psyche mission will be the first mission to investigate a world of metal rather than of rock and ice. They also explain the importance of this mission by telling that the scientists infer the presence of metallic cores but unfortunately, these lie deep below the crust of the planets thus making it difficult for them to explore... but Psyche gives them a new opportunity to understand the creation of these planets!

“To understand what really makes up a planet and to potentially see the inside of a planet is fascinating, Once we get to Psyche, we’re really going to understand if that’s the case, even if it doesn’t turn out as we expect... any time there’s a surprise, it’s always exciting.”, said Becker.

This is all for now..! I hope you'd enjoyed this article. Kindly share this valuable piece of information-Ah...! Maybe, more valuable than Psyche itself... - with your friends & colleagues.

For now, do share your views for what would be the pros and cons of piloting this multi-quintillion asteroid to the earth.

References

1) https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/16-psyche/in-depth/

2) https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/what-is-16-psyche-the-asteroid-believed-to-be-worth-10000-quadrillion-6911646/

3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Psyche

4) https://www.republicworld.com/technology-news/science/asteroid-16-psyche-will-be-closest-to-earth-tonight-can-be-viewed-with-telescope-reports.html

5) https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/why-16-psyche-a-gaint-asteroid-full-of-gold-won-t-make-us-richer-119070801078_1.html

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