16 Psyche is one of the largest and most recognizable asteroids in space right now, and that’s why NASA has made it a primary target to reach with the help of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

The ‘Psyche spacecraft’ launched in October 2023, and is currently scheduled to reach it’s asteroid destination by July 2029.

Along the way it’ll use the gravitational pull of Mars to propel itself towards 16 Psyche, and overall it’ll end up traveling around 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers).

However, for the rest of us down on earth the real draw is the asteroid’s value, as it’s estimated appraisal is around $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10 quintillion dollars, in simple terms. That’s a lot of money!

If this was split equally between every single person on Earth then we’d all be landed with $1,246,105,919, which is quite the attractive proposal if I don’t say so myself.

The reason behind this value is the copious amount of valuable metals found within the asteroid, as scientists have estimated that 30 to 60% of its construction is made up of gold, iron, nickel, and more.

With a diameter of 173 miles at its widest point, and 64,000 square miles of total surface area, you can start to understand why 16 Psyche is worth so much.

There might just be a catch to the proceedings though, making this more of a distant dream than the reality we’re all hoping for.

As explained by Kevin Cannon, assistant professor of geology and geological engineering at Colorado School of Mines, in an interview with Live Science, the process of mining an asteroid like 16 Psyche would not only be “economically dubious” due to the extraordinary cost of the process, but it’s not even close to being ready in the first place.

“There is no magic technology that we have to invent to mine asteroids,” explains Cannon, “It’s a matter of having the will to do so and putting the capital towards doing it.”

One planetary physicist explained that technology for mining asteroids is currently sitting ‘between and 3 and a five’ on a 1 to 9 readiness scale proposed by NASA.

Even with the financial support, which NASA claims its lacking, it would still take around five years for a ‘small-scale’ effort to be produced.

Money, like most things, is at the root of the problem (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

There is also the threat of rust, which has also been reported by Live Science, as suggestions of hydration upon the asteroid have caused surface metal to rust, which will cause it to devalue on the market if mined.

On top of this, economists would surely have concerns over the viability of an economy – especially one stretching across the world – where everyone is suddenly given over a million dollars.

You don’t need to be a genius with money to theorize how that would affect the price of things and the wider global economy, and would likely cause a crash far greater than anything we’ve seen before.

Maybe then it’s a good thing that we won’t be getting all that money, as painful as that is to say out loud.

Money definitely makes the world go round, and while cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are perhaps the best way to get rich quick right now, one discovery by NASA could end up saving us all the trouble.

While asteroids are fascinating in their own right, telling us much about space and even the origins of Earth, they can sometimes hold materials that are extremely valuable back on home soil.

That is very much the case for 16 Psyche, as the 173-mile wide asteroid is estimated to be worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 – that’s 10 quintillion.

If captured by NASA and brought back to Earth, the materials found on 16 Psyche could give every single human being $1,246,105,919 which could easily transform humanity as we know it.

First discovered 172 years ago by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, the ’16’ in its name refers to the fact that it was the 16th asteroid discovered by humans.

What makes it special compared to most is that it’s estimated that 30 to 60% of it’s form is comprised of valuable metals like gold, iron, and nickel, which could be sold for a rather significant sum of money if brought back to Earth.

Scientists claim that the asteroid stretches 173 miles at its widest point, and features 64,000 square miles of total surface area – so as you can imagine, that’s quite a lot of metal.

NASA have embarked upon a mission to analyze the asteroid, sending a ‘Psyche spacecraft’ alongside a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket into space.

The Psyche spacecraft has a long way to go before reaching the ball of metal (Maxar/ASU/P. Rubin/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The spacecraft then has to travel around 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers) to its destination, and the space agency have planned for it to reach its destination by July 2029.

In the process of getting to 16 Psyche the spacecraft will find itself within the gravitation pull of Mars, which is scheduled for around May 2026, at which point it will use the pull to dramatically increase its velocity and eventually reach the asteroid.

While the money will definitely be the interest of most people, the main purpose of NASA’s mission is to simply study the asteroid, as it’s presume to be the core of a planetesimal.

This could give scientists a significant breakthrough regarding the formation of Earth and other similar rocky or terrestrial planets, and that – to them – could perhaps be worth more than a trillion dollars.

We’ll keep our hopes up for the cash though, as I’m sure you will too.

Not to scare you, but astronomers report hundreds of near-miss asteroid strikes every year, while the majority that do make it to Earth land in its oceans due to 71% of the planet being made of water.

Astronomers think we’re long overdue a ‘planet killer’ asteroid (ANDRZEJ WOJCICKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty)

Weighing up the probabilities, we’re long overdue a big one, and you only have to look at Arizona’s ‘Barringer Crater’ to see what damage a reasonably small meteor can cause. With a diameter of no more than 170 ft, the strike from 50,000 years ago is thought to be big enough to wipe out a modern Kansas City. It’s a far cry from the ‘planet killer’ asteroid that obliterated the dinosaurs – estimated to be up to 15 km wide and about the size of Mount Everest.

There are enough movies out there to drum up fear about the devastation an asteroid can cause, but all might not be lost.

The University of Murcia’s Oscar del Barco Novillo has come up with an equation that can apparently spot those deadly ‘planet killer’ asteroids well ahead of time.

Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Novillo’s equation is based on the gravitational bending of light, supposedly helping scientists pinpoint objects as far away as the icy-filled Kuiper Belt. Pluto and other dwarf planets lurk beyond Neptune’s orbit in the Kuiper Belt, but Novillo thinks we can track asteroids even further away in the Oort Cloud.

In theory, planetary defense systems could prepare Earth for an eventual collision or try to divert a planet killer.

Even though Novillo’s work won’t help find supersized asteroids in the first place, it can give a better idea of their exact location and predict their trajectories.

Arizona’s Barringer Crater shows the impact even a relatively small asteroid can make (Chris Saulit / Getty)

Even though there are no major collisions expected for the next century, scientists keep their eyes on around 20 massive cosmic rocks in fear they could be on a collision course with Earth.

Astronomers had found nearly 10,000 ‘nearby’ space rocks that are over 460 ft across as of May 2023, and although an estimated 15,000 are still out there, 90% of the behemoths have thankfully been discovered.

Speaking to Mashable, Oscar Fuentes-Muñoz, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder, explained: “We need more information about these asteroids, although the probability [for an impact] is still very low.”

Although there currently isn’t a way to shield Earth from an asteroid hit, NASA has been practicing with its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) program. This involved slamming a fridge-sized spaceship into the Dimorphos asteroid in an attempt to shift its course.

For all the pessimists among you, an official NASA report claims that the Earth would be ‘unprepared’ for an asteroid hit even if it had 14 years’ notice, so it’s a good job astronomers continue to look at ways to identify them early. Sorry, it’s not as easy as blowing them up like in Armageddon.

Jaw-dropping footage has been released of an astronaut’s view of Hurricane Milton from space, and while we can still see some fantastic things in space from the comfort of Earth, it struggles to compare to even the average spacewalk experience.

Astronauts have plenty to marvel at while they’re floating around in outer space, but sometimes the best view simply involves looking down and back at home.

A video posted on X (formerly Twitter) by @AMAZINGNATURE shows a first-person point-of-view (POV) video of an astronaut’s spacewalk on the International Space Station.

It’s always amazing looking out of the window when you’re on a flight to see the clouds from above, but it’s really nothing compared to the thrill this must be to see the Earth in its entirety from so far away.

The International Space Station is ‘only’ around 408km above the Earth’s sea level, and the NASA craft travels at a max speed of 28,000 km/h in orbit.

We can see this speed in action in the video, as the view of the earth quickly rotates from being mostly ocean to a huge continent. It’s hard to tell exactly which countries we’re looking at, but it really is stunning to see from all the way up there.

Earth looks quite small from up here (X/@AMAZINGNATURE)

The reaction to this video is very much that of shared amazement, with many users on social media lamenting over the ‘incredible’ and ‘beautiful’ view. Leaving people with a slice of the ‘overview effect’ experienced by many astronauts when they view Earth from space for the first time. Astronaut Ron Garan famously described this as the ‘big lie’.

“If I were a kid, I’d be set on training to be an astronaut now,” one user remarks, adding that it’s currently “such an exciting time for space.”

Many have also hypothesized the perhaps extreme scenario of this being an excellent bungee jump location. While the ISS is quite a bit further than the previous skydiving record – set at just 41.422km in comparison – it would certainly not be an activity for anyone afraid of heights.

Who knows what the future holds though, as simulations have theorized space elevators with similarly stunning views, and Elon Musk has proposed ultra-fast commercial flights that will journey passengers into space in the process.

I’m sure there would be quite the queue for the view though, as it’d be something you wouldn’t want to miss out on.