{"id":238611,"date":"2023-10-13T17:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=238611"},"modified":"2023-10-13T17:00:52","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T17:00:52","slug":"nasa-launches-its-psyche-mission-to-a-10000-quadrillion-asteroid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/lifestyle\/nasa-launches-its-psyche-mission-to-a-10000-quadrillion-asteroid\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA launches its Psyche mission to a $10,000 QUADRILLION asteroid"},"content":{"rendered":"
After months of anticipation,\u00a0NASA’s Psyche mission has finally launched today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The US space agency launched at 10:19 ET (15:19 BST) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.<\/p>\n
‘Feel the noize! Ain’t nothin’ but a good time. All aboard the #MissionToPsyche! Next stop: A metal world,’ NASA tweeted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Psyche is a spacecraft built to explore a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid called 16 Psyche, which scientists think may be\u00a0<\/span>packed full of iron, nickel and gold with a value in excess of\u00a0$10,000 quadrillion (\u00a38,072 quadrillion).<\/span><\/p>\n That’s enough money to make everyone on Earth a billionaire \u2014 although even if NASA is able to confirm this is the case, there are currently no plans to extract the precious metals.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n After months of anticipation, NASA’s Psyche mission has finally launched today. Following bad weather earlier this week, the US space agency launched at 10:19 ET (15:19 BST) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Psyche is a spacecraft built to explore a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid called 16 Psyche, which scientists think may be packed full of iron, nickel and gold with a value in excess of $10,000 quadrillion (\u00a38,072 quadrillion)\u00a0<\/p>\n Psyche’s launch had already been delayed once, with the $1.2 billion (\u00a3988 million) spacecraft originally scheduled to blast into space on October 5, only for this to be put back by a week so that engineers could update the configuration of its thrusters.<\/p>\n When it reached orbit, Psyche will embark on a six-year, 2.2 billion-mile (3.6 billion-kilometre) trip to a space rock of the same name, 16 Psyche.<\/p>\n This\u00a0170-mile-wide (280 kilometre) asteroid\u00a0sits in the\u00a0main asteroid belt between Mars and <\/span>Jupiter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n No spacecraft has ever visited an object like 16 Psyche\u00a0\u2013 thought to have a surface containing substantial amounts of metal rather than rock or ice \u2013 but if all goes to plan the orbiter will arrive at its destination in July 2029.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The irregular and potato-like asteroid is believed to be the exposed core of a demolished\u00a0protoplanet \u2014 the building blocks of the rocky planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n ‘Feel the noize! Ain’t nothin’ but a good time. All aboard the #MissionToPsyche! Next stop: A metal world,’ NASA tweeted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The irregular and potato-like asteroid (depicted) is believed to be the exposed core of a demolished protoplanet \u2014 the building blocks of the rocky planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n If 16 Psyche is in fact loaded with precious metals, it could be worth an extraordinary amount of money, according to\u00a0Dr Linda Elkins-Tanton, a space scientist at MIT.\u00a0<\/p>\n She has calculated that the iron in 16 Psyche alone would be worth $10,000 quadrillion (\u00a38,072 quadrillion).\u00a0<\/p>\n Assuming the market for asteroid materials is on Earth, this could cause the value of precious metals to plummet,\u00a0completely devaluing all holdings including those of governments, and all companies involved in mining, distributing and trading such commodities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ultimately, it could lead to the collapse of the entire economy. \u00a0<\/p>\n Speaking to Global News Canada, Dr Elkins-Tanton said: ‘Even if we could grab a big metal piece and drag it back here \u2026 what would you do?<\/p>\n ‘Could you kind of sit on it and hide it and control the global resource \u2013 kind of like diamonds are controlled corporately \u2013 and protect your market?<\/p>\n ‘What if you decided you were going to bring it back and you were just going to solve the metal resource problems of humankind for all time? This is wild speculation obviously.’<\/p>\n If so, it could provide a unique opportunity to study how planets like our own formed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scientists say the space rock is most likely a survivor of multiple violent hit-and-run collisions, common when the solar system was forming.\u00a0<\/p>\n During this smash-up and merging of smaller planetesimals, the resulting bigger objects start out completely molten.<\/p>\n Heavy metals then sink to the core, while lighter rock floats to the top.<\/p>\n With 16 Psyche, however, NASA thinks that after reaching this stage it was then hit by another asteroid which stripped it of its rocky mantle and left behind a bare metal core that has been detected today.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Spectroscopic studies and radar observations suggest its surface is\u00a0up to 95 per cent nickel and iron, a composition similar to that of Earth’s core.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n If 16 Psyche is in fact loaded with precious metals, it could be worth a huge amount of money, according to\u00a0Dr Linda Elkins-Tanton, a space scientist at MIT.<\/span><\/p>\n She has calculated that the iron in 16 Psyche alone would be worth $10,000 quadrillion (\u00a38,072 quadrillion).\u00a0<\/p>\n Assuming the market for asteroid materials is on Earth, this could cause the value of precious metals to plummet,\u00a0completely devaluing all holdings including those of governments, and all companies involved in mining, distributing and trading such commodities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ultimately, it could lead to the collapse of the entire economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course it’s all speculative and hypothetical, because even if the space rock was worth anywhere close to that kind of money, it’s not like it could easily be brought back to Earth and there are currently no plans to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The mission: This graphic provides a step-by-step guide of Psyche’s journey to 16 Psyche<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How the journey will work: The spacecraft will embark on a six-year, 2.2 billion-mile (3.6 billion-kilometre) trip to a space rock of the same name, 16 Psyche. It will require a gravity assist from Mars in May 2026 to help it on its way, before arriving at its destination in 2029<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Location: The 170-mile-wide (280 kilometre) asteroid sits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter<\/p>\n Date of discovery:<\/span> March 17, 1852<\/p>\n Average distance to the sun:<\/span> 437 million km<\/p>\n Orbital period:<\/span> 4.99 years<\/p>\n Surface area:<\/span> 165,800km2 (about twice the surface of Ireland)<\/p>\n Mass:<\/span> 2.3 x 1019kg<\/p>\n Estimated ore value:<\/span> $10,000 quintillion<\/p>\n 16 Psyche was actually only the 16th asteroid ever discovered, having been spotted in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis.<\/p>\n It has an average diameter of some 136 miles (220 kilometres) and contains about 1 per cent the total mass of the entire asteroid belt \u2014\u00a0around 440 billion billion pounds (220 billion billion kilograms) to be exact.<\/p>\n That makes it among\u00a0the 12 largest minor planets orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.<\/p>\n The Psyche spacecraft will carry with it several instruments, including two high-resolution cameras and a spectrometer to determine the asteroid’s composition.\u00a0<\/p>\n It also has a magnetometer to check if the space rock has a remnant magnetic field, along with an instrument to measure its gravitational field.\u00a0<\/p>\n The orbiter will spend a total of\u00a021 months orbiting the asteroid while capturing the first-ever images of 16 Psyche.<\/span><\/p>\n The hope is that by mapping and studying the asteroid in such detail it will help researchers<\/span>\u00a0determine how it came to be, which could in turn shed light on the formation of our own planet.<\/p>\n 16 Psyche is located in the large asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and may have started as a planet, before it was partially destroyed during the formation of the solar system.<\/p>\n Now, it is believed to be a 173 mile (280 km) wide chunk of metal, made up of iron, nickel and a number of other rare metals, including gold, platinum and copper.\u00a0<\/p>\n As such, it offers a unique look into the violent collisions that created Earth and the terrestrial planets.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mission team seeks to determine whether Psyche is the core of an early planet, how old it is, whether it formed in similar ways to Earth’s core, and what its surface is like.\u00a0<\/p>\n The spacecraft’s instrument payload will include magnetometers, multispectral imagers, and a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer.<\/p>\n It may be 230 million miles (370 million km) away from Earth, but this asteroid could be worth a small fortune.<\/p>\n 16 Psyche is one of the most mysterious objects in our solar system, and scientists will soon be getting a close-up view thanks to NASA’s upcoming mission.<\/p>\n If the asteroid could be transported back to Earth, the iron alone that experts think it could contain would be worth $10,000 quadrillion (\u00a38,072 quadrillion).<\/p>\n Its value would be large enough to destroy commodity prices and cause the world’s economy – worth $73.7 trillion (\u00a359.5 trillion) \u2013 to collapse.<\/p>\nREAD MORE:\u00a0MailOnline’s step-by-step guide to the Psyche mission to a 4.5 billion-year-old rock packed full of precious metals\u00a0<\/h3>\n
HOW MUCH IS PSYCHE WORTH?<\/h3>\n
16 PSYCHE: KEY FACTS<\/h3>\n
THE METAL WORLD OF \u00a016 PSYCHE<\/h3>\n
Why are asteroids worth so much?<\/span><\/h2>\n