Imagine an asteroid so full of valuable metals that it could make every person on Earth a billionaire. Well, that’s not science fiction. It’s 16 Psyche, a massive metallic space rock orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. It isn’t just extraordinary because of its value, estimated at 10 quintillion dollars. That’s a figure that dwarfs the global economy many times over. It also has clues about the formation of planets, especially the rocky worlds like Earth. In October 2023, NASA launched the Psyche spacecraft. This mission is to explore the cosmic treasure trove. It’s supposed to arrive at the asteroid in August 2029, and astronomers hope that it will give us some insights not just about the asteroid’s glittering wealth, but also about how planets form and evolve in our solar system. But what exactly makes Psyche unique?
First discovered in 1852 by an Italian astronomer, it was the 16th asteroid people identified, hence its name. It stands out among the millions of space rocks in the asteroid belt for one main reason, its metallic composition. While most asteroids are rocky or icy, Psyche seems to be made primarily of iron, nickel, and possibly even gold and other rare metals. At about 173 miles wide, it isn’t the largest asteroid. It’s easily dwarfed by others like Ceres, but its size is still impressive. After all, its surface area is 64,000 square miles, like that of the state of Florida. Astronomers think that between 30 and 60% of the asteroid surface might consist of precious metals. They also think that this space rock might be the exposed core of a planetesimal. A planetesimal is basically a protoplanet, a large space body in orbit around a star developing into a planet.
And this planetesimal could have grown into a full-fledged planet if it hadn’t been destroyed in some catastrophic collision billions of years ago. If this theory is correct, Psyche can give us a unique glimpse into what lies deep within terrestrial planets like Earth, where planetary cores are hidden thousands of miles beneath thick crusts and mantles. Now, remember that spacecraft that went to explore the asteroid? After embarking on its ambitious mission, the Psyche probe will travel a mind-boggling 2. 2 billion miles to reach its goal. This journey will take nearly 6 years. On its way to the asteroid, the spacecraft will pass by Mars in May 2026 and use the red planet’s gravity to slingshot itself deeper into space. This maneuver is called a gravity assist, and it will boost the velocity of the probe and refine its trajectory toward the asteroid.
By the time it reaches its goal in August 2029, the spacecraft will be set to orbit the asteroid for at least 26 months. During this time, it will analyze its surface, figure out its composition, and attempt to unravel its history. The probe is equipped with some pretty cool tools. One of them is called a multispectral imager. This instrument will snap high-resolution images of the asteroid surface. It’s supposed to help astronomers to study its texture and composition. Then, the probe has a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer. This instrument will measure the asteroid’s chemical elements, including its metal content. A magnetometer will detect a magnetic field, if any, which could confirm Psyche’s origin as a planetary core. And finally, an X-band radio system will help determine the asteroid’s gravity field, which can offer insights into the asteroid’s internal structure.
NASA isn’t sending the spacecraft to assess the value of the space rock as a mining target. Well, at least not yet. The main goal of the mission is science. Researchers hope to answer fundamental questions about how planets form and evolve. And this asteroid could help us understand what happens when molten material solidifies into a core. Another question we need to answer to is, why did it fail to become a planet? And understanding the history of the asteroid might shed light on why some celestial bodies grow into planets while others don’t. While NASA’s mission is purely exploratory, it has also sparked interest from the point of view of asteroid mining. With its estimated worth of 10 quintillion dollars, Psyche could theoretically supply enough raw materials to revolutionize industries on Earth. Mining it is likely to be decades away, if it ever happens altogether.
But the idea still sounds amazing. At the same time, if the asteroid’s metals were somehow brought to Earth, their abundance could cause the value of precious metals like gold to plummet, and it would wreak havoc on global markets. Speaking of valuable resources, let’s find out how Earth got its own gold, platinum, and other rare metals. These elements, aka highly siderophile elements, have a cosmic origin story, and it’s every bit as dramatic as Psyche’s. These precious metals were born in violent cosmic events billions of years ago. Many appeared in kilonovae, explosive collisions between neutron stars. These metals were then scattered across space and eventually became part of the gas and dust cloud that formed our solar system. When Earth formed, those metals sank towards its iron-rich core, but not all of them ended up deep inside the planet.
Destructive collisions with rogue protoplanets like the Mars-sized Theia, which most likely helped to form the moon, trapped some elements in Earth’s mantle. Recent computer models have explained how this happened. After each major collision, Earth’s surface temporarily became a magma ocean, a molten layer of rock. As metals sank through the magma, they reached a partially solid layer that slowed their descent, keeping them in the mantle instead of the core. These metals then moved closer to the surface under the influence of thermal convection. That’s what made them accessible for mining billions of years later. While Psyche’s metals are all over the news, space has more to offer than just gold and iron. Scientists have discovered, or rather theorized, the existence of different gemstones scattered across the cosmos, like diamonds. The thing is, diamonds are made of pure carbon, and this element is abundant in the universe.
On Earth, diamonds form deep in the mantle under high pressure and temperature. In space, conditions for diamond formation can occur in surprising places. For example, nanodiamonds, which are really tiny diamonds, have been found in meteorites. Sometimes they contain gases that give us clues about the early solar system. Scientists believe that it might rain diamonds on our ice giants, Neptune and Uranus. There, high pressures compress carbon into crystalline form. Researchers have also predicted that exoplanets in other solar systems could have gemstones like rubies and sapphires, depending on their size and proximity to their stars. Even Earth’s moon had its own share of cosmic minerals. Scientists have found some traces of cubic zirconia in lunar rocks. So, space might hold even more treasures than we’ve imagined. But let’s get back to the Psyche mission.
It might not only reveal the whole potential of space resources, but also underline the issues we could face while dealing with them. For example, mining an asteroid would require the usage of autonomous robots, machines capable of operating in harsh space environments. Plus, we would need efficient transport systems to bring materials back to Earth or process them in orbit. We would need to make sure that mining activities wouldn’t damage ecosystems or space environments. There are also legal and ethical issues, like the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. It prohibits any nation from claiming sovereignty over celestial bodies. But with private companies entering the space race, debates over ownership and resource sharing are heating up. And finally, bringing such amounts of metals to Earth could destabilize global markets. So, experts suggest that space resources might be better used in space, for building habitats, satellites, and spacecraft.
But no matter whether we ever mine 16 Psyche or not, its exploration will teach us more about the early solar system and the processes that shaped our planet. As of December 1st, 2024, the probe is heading for the asteroid, following the orbit around the sun. Its journey promises not only to deepen our knowledge of the universe, but also to redefine what’s possible for humanity as we reach for the stars. So, how do you feel about cooking? Nah, pasta and burgers are overrated. How about something more exotic, or rather, more cosmic? So, the recipe is simple. Take a team of enthusiastic astronomers and add some old images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Stir really well, and you’ll get a shocking number of tiny asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Yummy.
The highlight of this dish is the direction in which some of the asteroids are moving, because in their way, there’s our poor planet. Are we doomed just because you decided to cook? Now, the asteroids I’m talking about are much smaller than the massive space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs, but they can still cause considerable damage. They range in size from as small as a bus to as big as a stadium. But even those small ones pack quite a punch. Let’s look at a recent dramatic example. It happened on February 15th, 2013. A small asteroid just tens of feet wide exploded in an airburst over Chelyabinsk in Siberia, releasing an insane amount of energy. Many people witnessed and recorded the event, and it gave scientists vital clues. New computer models helped scientists reconstruct the size, speed, and impact of the Chelyabinsk meteor.
It was likely an asteroid about the size of a five-story building exploding from 15 to 18 miles above Earth’s surface with an enormous, incomparable force. The blast shattered a million windows and hurt over a thousand people. Fortunately, it wasn’t powerful enough to cause too much damage, but it gave us an idea about how dangerous an airburst can be. Now, an airburst occurs when an object explodes high in the atmosphere, never striking the ground, but releasing enough energy to devastate the area. But back to the small asteroids. The most dangerous thing about them is that they hit the Earth far more often than the larger ones, about 10,000 times more frequently. To make matters worse, their small size makes them harder to detect in advance, leaving little time for preparation if one is heading towards Earth. Now, let’s travel back in time. Uh-oh, dinosaurs. Too far back.
Ah, there we go. A team of astronomers is working on a special method to find small asteroids in telescope images that were originally taken to study distant stars. Using this method, they’ve looked through thousands of JWST images of a star system called TRAPPIST-1. It’s located 40 light-years away and is one of the most studied systems outside our solar system. Now, while analyzing these images, they discovered 138 new asteroids in the main asteroid belt, plus eight they already knew about. And guess what? Among the newly found asteroids, six seem to have been pushed into paths that could bring them closer to Earth. Who did it? Well, probably nearby planets. Are they holding a grudge against Earth? Interestingly, scientists thought they’d find just a few new asteroids, but the number was much higher than they expected. Yet, it’s no wonder.
Right now, they’re exploring a part of space they didn’t know much about before. Now, let’s talk about the hero of the day, the James Webb Space Telescope. It’s especially good at finding small asteroids because it can detect their heat. These asteroids give off infrared radiation, which is much easier to see than the faint sunlight that reflects off their surfaces. This technology allowed scientists to spot the smallest asteroids ever seen in the main asteroid belt. The asteroids they found are pieces left over from collisions between bigger space rocks. Finding them helps astronomers understand the history of the asteroid belt and improve methods for tracking small asteroids that could threaten Earth. The researchers are planning to use James Webb to observe other star systems for at least 500 hours. They expect this work to uncover thousands more small asteroids in the solar system.
Other advanced telescopes, like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, will also help. Starting in 2025, this observatory will use the world’s largest digital camera to photograph the southern sky every night for at least 10 years. Each image will cover a huge area of the sky, about 40 times the size of the full moon. The observatory might find up to 2 and 1/2 million asteroids in just 6 months, almost doubling the number we know about. Recently, NASA has identified two small asteroids. They were supposed to pass near Earth on December 16th, 2024. Luckily, neither posed any danger to our planet. The first asteroid was 71 feet wide, about the size of a large airplane, and was traveling at 10,800 miles per hour. The second asteroid was slightly smaller, 56 feet wide, but it traveled faster at 14,700 miles per hour.
