To read the article in Odia click here.
Have you ever heard of an asteroid which is valued at 10000 quadrillion, much greater than the whole economy of Earth. Such that if by any chance if the whole asteroid is mined and is brought here to Earth, and the money if distributed among the whole population of Earth then each person will become a billionaire. Well, the name of the asteroid is ‘Psyche 16’, which was discovered by an Italian Astronomer Annibale de Gasparis on 17 March, 1852 in Naples.
Well, lets go on with the technicalities of the Psyche 16,located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.Its mass is estimated around to be 2.73 × 1019 kg and through Thermal Infrared Emission scans the diameter is estimated to be about 253 kms. It consists of two large craters both 90 km across to each other which has been named as Meroe and Panthia. The surface of Psyche reveals that it is made up 90% metals and 10% silicate rocks. The metals estimated to be mostly found here is Iron and Nickel. This proves the fact that this Asteroid Psyche 16 seems to be an exposed metallic core or a fragment of a metallic core from a larger differentiated parent body about 500 kms in diameter, which was once a planet billions of years ago.
Well, NASA has already approved a mission on 4th January 2017 to launch a space mission to Psyche 16 for its study, scheduled to launch in October 2023 , with an Earth gravity assist maneuver, Mars flyby in 2025 and arriving the asteroid at 2030. The space mission to Psyche 16 will be carried out by Elon Musk’s SpaceX with a 117 million dollar contract signed with NASA to launch the Psyche spacecraft.
Courtesy:- The Wikipedia, Forbes.com
References :
- https://images.app.goo.gl/6TrD2vUduAxKYhEM6
- https://images.app.goo.gl/L1pD9oX89hk2sAku5
- https://images.app.goo.gl/UxiwNyE5tRJDaQ9o9
