NASA issues update on status of mission to capture asteroid worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000

NASA has shared an update on a mission to explore an asteroid worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 ($10 quintillion) 170 years after it was discovered.

The asteroid , named Psyche was first discovered 172 years ago in 1852 by an Italian astronomer and is named after the Greek goddess of the soul. It was the 16th asteroid to be discovered and is thought to be worth up to $10 quintillion.

Psyche is composed of 30 per cent to 60 per cent metal, and is thought to contain valuable materials such as gold, iron, platinum, palladium, and nickel, estimated to be worth $10 quintillion dollars. The asteroid lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

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The asteroid has a surface area of 64,000 square miles and could prove a lucrative resource. But there's an issue, Psyche is around 235 million to 309 million miles from the Sun, depending where it is in orbit - meaning it would take six years to reach it.

While it may be a while before the asteroid could potentially be mined, NASA launched a probe to study Psyche back in October 2023. The space agency is planning to use Mars' gravitational field in a slingshot maneuver in May 2026, with the goal of arriving at Psyche in 2029 if all goes to plan.

The launch would likely take place from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with the vessel traveling 2.2 billion miles to reach its destination. The spacecraft is poised to study an asteroid made primarily of metal in a first for NASA (previous missions focused on asteroids made of rock or ice).

Despite the asteroid's potential worth in quintillions, mining Psyche remains a distant prospect. Scientists aim to confirm the composition of Psyche and delve into its structure. NASA's primary interest lies in uncovering the scientific mysteries it holds, and the mission's primary goal is to illuminate the formation of early planets. Psyche likely originated from violent collisions during the solar system's infancy, making its study crucial for understanding the formation of Earth's core.

Several months ago, a team of international astronomers discovered that around one in 12 twin stars show signs of 'ingesting' nearby planets. Scientists had presumed the twin stars would have identical compositions - but surprisingly found that around eight per cent of them differ from the others. The difference lies in one of the stars showing a tendency to 'devour' planets or planetary material in space.

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The international study team was led by astronomers at the All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) - a $40m Research Centre of Excellence funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and nine collaborating Australian universities.

Their findings, published in the journal Nature, were based on a large dataset collected with the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, both in Chile, as well as the 10-meter Keck Telescope in Hawaii.

ASTRO 3D Researcher Dr Fan Liu, a lead author of the study from Monash University in Australia , explained: "We looked at twin stars traveling together. They are born of the same molecular clouds and so should be identical. Thanks to this very high precision analysis, we can see chemical differences between the twins. This provides very strong evidence that one of the stars has swallowed planets or planetary material and changed its composition."