This asteroid worth more than world economy has NASA’s attention

The planetary body looks like a blurry fog when viewed from Earth. However, experts believe the asteroid is especially rich in metal based on light bounced off it.

The core is assumed to be made up of exposed metallic iron, nickel, and gold, based on informal conclusions drawn on Earth. NASA plans to send a spacecraft to the asteroid 16 Psyche, which is located in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, in August 2022.

16 Psyche was first spotted in 1852 by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and is thought to be the center of a shattered planetesimal, a planet-forming building block. The Psyche project, which is scheduled to launch in August 2022, will orbit a region of space that scientists can only see from Earth and has never been visited previously.

If the asteroid’s contents are discovered, it will be valued at way more than the roughly $94 trillion world economy, at $10 quintillion (insert 18 zeros). However, Psyche is behind Davida, which is reportedly worth $27 quintillion.

A planetary scientist at Arizona State University who oversees the NASA Psyche project, Lindy Elkins-Tanton, recently said in a statement, “But we don’t really know, and we won’t know anything for sure until we get there. We wanted to ask primary questions about the material that built planets. We’re filled with questions and not a lot of answers. This is real exploration.”

Four years after its launch, the Psyche spacecraft will use the gravity of Mars in 2026, to fling itself towards a celestial body. From 435 miles over the asteroid’s ground, it will spend 21 months scanning and researching it. A magnetometer on board the Psyche spacecraft will evaluate whether or not the asteroid has a magnetic field. The journey will span a total distance of 1.5 billion miles.

According to data made on Earth, the asteroid Psyche may be structured like a potato. If proven to be formed of metal, Psyche could disclose what lies beneath the layers of mantle and crust on planets like Earth. The diameter of Psyche is 140 miles. Because it rotates every four hours, a Psyche “day” is thus quite brief.