<p>The space race is about to morph into an unprecedented gold rush. Spotting an asteroid fabulously packed with gold and precious heavy metals worth a mind-boggling $10 quintillion, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has planned a mission kicking off in 2022.</p>.<p>Virtually up for grabs, the asteroid, Psyche 16, has been caught glittering between Mars and Jupiter. Now, if NASA succeeds and sparks a mining space race, the eye-popping quantities of gold, iron and nickel could make everyone on earth a billionaire.</p>.<p>For the American space agency, what caught its attention about Psyche 16 was the asteroid’s unearthly composition. At first sight, NASA gathered that it was an exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, “one of the building blocks of our solar system”.</p>.<p>Besides gold, the asteroid also has platinum in plenty.</p>.<p>Space buffs worldwide were gushing that the asteroid could end up crippling the earth’s gold industry, rekindling global economy and banishing poverty forever.</p>.<p>For Indians forever hooked to ‘Akshaya tritiya’ gold purchases to spark prosperity and eternal growth, the asteroid might just be the game-changer. For gold-miners worldwide, faced with depleting natural resources on planet earth, the current output of about 4-5 million ounces of gold per year will just not compare with what’s in store.<br /> </p>.<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/194399729">Psyche: Journey to a Metal World</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/sese">School of Earth & Space</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>.<p>But wait, the asteroid will not be mined in a hurry. Once NASA launches its mission in 2022, it would orbit Psyche 16 for years, studying it from a distance before making that golden plunge. The mission’s solar electric cruise will last 3.5 years, arriving at Psyche in 2026.</p>.<p class="CrossHead"><strong>Early planet?</strong></p>.<p>Beyond the glitter, NASA scientists are more interested in a fascinating possibility: That Psyche 16 could be the exposed core of an early planet as large as Mars that lost its rocky outer layers through violent collisions billions of years ago.</p>.<p>If this were so, “it would provide a unique look into the solar system’s distant past, when the kind of high-speed protoplanet encounters that created earth and the other terrestrial planets were common,” the NASA said on its website.</p>.<p>The asteroid study, by implication, could then tell how exactly our own earth’s core and the cores of other planets were formed.</p>
<p>The space race is about to morph into an unprecedented gold rush. Spotting an asteroid fabulously packed with gold and precious heavy metals worth a mind-boggling $10 quintillion, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has planned a mission kicking off in 2022.</p>.<p>Virtually up for grabs, the asteroid, Psyche 16, has been caught glittering between Mars and Jupiter. Now, if NASA succeeds and sparks a mining space race, the eye-popping quantities of gold, iron and nickel could make everyone on earth a billionaire.</p>.<p>For the American space agency, what caught its attention about Psyche 16 was the asteroid’s unearthly composition. At first sight, NASA gathered that it was an exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, “one of the building blocks of our solar system”.</p>.<p>Besides gold, the asteroid also has platinum in plenty.</p>.<p>Space buffs worldwide were gushing that the asteroid could end up crippling the earth’s gold industry, rekindling global economy and banishing poverty forever.</p>.<p>For Indians forever hooked to ‘Akshaya tritiya’ gold purchases to spark prosperity and eternal growth, the asteroid might just be the game-changer. For gold-miners worldwide, faced with depleting natural resources on planet earth, the current output of about 4-5 million ounces of gold per year will just not compare with what’s in store.<br /> </p>.<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/194399729">Psyche: Journey to a Metal World</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/sese">School of Earth & Space</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>.<p>But wait, the asteroid will not be mined in a hurry. Once NASA launches its mission in 2022, it would orbit Psyche 16 for years, studying it from a distance before making that golden plunge. The mission’s solar electric cruise will last 3.5 years, arriving at Psyche in 2026.</p>.<p class="CrossHead"><strong>Early planet?</strong></p>.<p>Beyond the glitter, NASA scientists are more interested in a fascinating possibility: That Psyche 16 could be the exposed core of an early planet as large as Mars that lost its rocky outer layers through violent collisions billions of years ago.</p>.<p>If this were so, “it would provide a unique look into the solar system’s distant past, when the kind of high-speed protoplanet encounters that created earth and the other terrestrial planets were common,” the NASA said on its website.</p>.<p>The asteroid study, by implication, could then tell how exactly our own earth’s core and the cores of other planets were formed.</p>