Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NASA Is Planning Mission To An Asteroid Worth $10 Quintillion (usatoday.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the rags-to-riches dept.

New submitter kugo2006 writes: NASA announced a plan to research 16 Psyche, an asteroid potentially as large as Mars and primarily composed of Iron and Nickel. The rock is unique in that it has an exposed core, likely a result of a series of collisions, according to Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche's principal investigator. The mission's spacecraft would launch in 2023 and arrive in 2030. According to Global News, Elkins-Tanton calculates that the iron in 16 Psyche would be worth $10,000 quadrillion ($10 quintillion).

4 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. How large?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Potentially as large as Mars"? According to Wikipedia: Psyche16: 200km in diameter. Mars: 6800km in diameter

    1. Re:How large?!? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Potentially as large as Mars"? According to Wikipedia: Psyche16: 200km in diameter. Mars: 6800km in diameter

      That was mangled in the summary, but TFA says that it may be the remaining core of a planet destroyed in a collision, that was potentially as large as Mars.

  2. Re:What complete nonsense by mvendra · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pretty much what happened in Spain during the 16th century. They brought so much gold/silver back to Europe, it actually caused massive inflation.

  3. Re:What complete nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    " one carat diamond may be worth $10,000, but if there were suddenly a trillion of them"

    Between the hoards of diamonds that DeBeers keeps locked up, and the ability to make them in a lab, there are a ~trillion of them. Diamonds have no real value, go sell one "used" and you'll find out much they're worth.