by Compiled from Wire Services
U.S. space agency NASA has captured a rare asteroid the size of Massachusetts orbiting between Mars and Jupiter – valued at $10,000 quadrillion.
A metallic rarity,16 Psyche was discovered back in 1852 with NASA’s Hubble Telescope finally offering citizens of Earth a closer glimpse.
The Planetary Science Journal published a new study indicating that the asteroid’s composition is key to its astronomical value. According to the study Psyche, which spans 140 miles (225.3 km) in diameter, is 70,000 times more valuable than the global economy. Its worth was valued at about $142 trillion in 2019, or enough to buy and sell Jeff Bezos.
The study said that the asteroid is made entirely of iron and nickel.
“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 a planetary scientist and author of the new paper, Tracy Becker.
According to Becker, Psyche is the leftover core of a planet that never properly formed because it was hit by objects in our solar system and effectively lost its mantle and crust.
Becker said the asteroid is around 230 million miles (370.1 million km) from Earth in the Solar System’s main asteroid belt, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.