For the first time ever, a NASA probe is set to journey to an object composed not of rock, ice, or gas, but metal: the asteroid Psyche.
For the first time ever, a NASA probe is set to journey to an object composed not of rock, ice, or gas, but metal: the asteroid Psyche.
By studying this space oddity, scientists hope to learn more about the inner cores of rocky planets such as our own—or, potentially catalog a previously unknown class of cosmic body.
Here are some big numbers and fun facts to dazzle your friends with about the mission.
If Psyche were mineable, its iron, nickel and gold deposits could be worth an eye-watering $10,000 quadrillion (that’s $10,000,000,000,000,000,000), according to an estimate reported by Forbes magazine.
But Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the mission’s principal investigator who was responsible for that calculation, said it’s nothing more than a „fun intellectual exercise with no truth to it.“
„We have zero technology as a species to bring Psyche back to Earth,“ she said in a recent briefing. Attempting to do so could backfire by causing an apocalyptic collision—but even if the endeavor were successful, it would flood the metals market, reducing their value to zero, she said.
The Psyche probe will blast off on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, but to complete its 2.2 billion-mile (3.6 billion-kilometer) journey, it will turn to a far more efficient form of propulsion.
