Most people are extremely excited if they find a small chunk of gold the size of a football. That gold can easily be exchanged with money. But what if someone finds a huge space rock full of precious metals? He won’t have to go to work again for the rest of his life.
The weird thing is that there’s actually an asteroid out there in the solar system that’s composed of precious metals. The space rock is worth more than $10,000 quintillion. You may have never heard about a quintillion before. Don’t worry, you probably never had the chance in the first place. That translates to 1 followed by 22 zeroes.
The fortune floating above our heads is named ‘Psyche 16’
Psyche 16 is the asteroid in question. According to Lad Bible, NASA plans to start a mission to the asteroid in August 2022. The spacecraft would arrive at the space rock four years later.
NASA issued the following statement, as quoted by Lad Bible:
Unlike most other asteroids that are rocky or icy bodies, scientists think the M-type (metallic) asteroid 16 Psyche is comprised mostly of metallic iron and nickel similar to Earth.
Daily Mail reveals that the Psyche 16 asteroid is positioned between Mars and Jupiter, and it’s thought to be the remnant of a protoplanet that faced destruction in collisions during the formation period of the solar system.
If NASA somehow finds a way to extract precious metals from the asteroid, it would be a major win for humanity. We are eagerly looking forward to see what’s coming next. Who knows, maybe after studying the asteroid up-close, scientists will also uncover secrets about the formation of our entire solar system. There are still plenty of questions left unanswered, and only close observations can unveil the mystery.
