Usually the only time most people are interested in asteroids is when one could potentially come in contact with Earth. However, NASA recently discovered a new asteroid that has many wondering how they can get a piece of it. The rare asteroid is made mostly of metals and could be worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000.
The “16 Psyche” asteroid was discovered recently by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The asteroid is located in the Solar System’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and is roughly the size of West Virginia. However, unlike most asteroids which are rocky or icy, this rare asteroid is made almost entirely of metals, just like the core of Earth.
“We’ve seen meteorites that are mostly metal, but Psyche could be unique in that it might be an asteroid that is totally made of iron and nickel,” said Tracy Becker, one of the study’s authors. Given the size and metal content, the asteroid would be worth $10,000 quadrillion, which is about 10,000 times the global economy. Hopefully this doesn’t lead to a space race to claim the asteroid.
Via Observer