# Expensive asteroid found **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 1, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482 "2020-11-01T14:46:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/1 "2020-11-01T14:46:31Z")
Worth $10,000 quadrillion almost as much as Jeff Bezos šŸ™‚ > **[Psyche, an asteroid believed to be worth $10,000 quadrillion, is observed...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/31/us/psyche-asteroid-ultraviolet-trnd-scn/index.html?utm_term=image&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twCNN&utm_content=2020-11-01T01%3A31%3A01)** > > Earth has a molten metal core that us humans are unable to access and study directly. But there's a giant asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter that scientists suspect might be the metal core of a planet that never was, and they are... ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/2 "2020-11-01T14:54:54Z")
I saw that story. It seems to me thereā€™s something pretty off about their economics hereā€“if someone finds an asteroid that contains $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 worth of unobtanium, surely the price of unobtanium would immediately plummet, and your giant asteroid made of unobtanium would no longer be worth anything close to $10,000,000,000,000,000,000. Basic Econ 101: Supply and demand. Why, if we found that much unobtanium, weā€™d probably start using unobtanium to make darn near everythingā€“cars, ships, buildings, all sorts of thingsā€¦Oh, wait, the darned asteroid is made of _iron_, we **already** use iron/iron-containing alloys for a million-and-one things, and the typical human-made landscape is just absolutely littered with iron and steel. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/3 "2020-11-01T14:55:30Z")
I call dibs on it. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/4 "2020-11-01T14:59:01Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > I saw that story. It seems to me thereā€™s something pretty off about their economics hereā€“if someone finds an asteroid that contains $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 worth of unobtanium, surely the price of unobtanium would immediately **plummet** , - Exactly. It would crater the market. :flees: ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/5 "2020-11-01T15:00:05Z")
now iron ore is $123 per ton. Then it has to be processed so the end cost is higher than that . ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/6 "2020-11-01T15:49:18Z")
Itā€™s not yours until you lick it. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/7 "2020-11-01T16:45:25Z")
Itā€™s a very misleading article, like many of CNNā€™s distorted or sensationalized articles on science. It implies that this is an asteroid of exceptionally precious material (it isnā€™t) that was just recently discovered (it wasnā€™t). The asteroid 16 Psyche was in fact discovered way back in 1852, because itā€™s exceptionally large and bright. Thereā€™s nothing that warrants any news about it except that thereā€™s an exploratory mission that NASA will launch in 2022 that will arrive there in 2026. Itā€™s scientifically interesting because itā€™s thought to be the exposed iron-nickel core of a protoplanet. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/8 "2020-11-01T16:48:44Z")
Yeah. But whatā€™s the street value after the ā€œimportersā€ cut it? $10^23? ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/9 "2020-11-01T16:57:27Z")
The US should slam tariffs on it. That will teach _them_ (ominous voiceā€¦) to respect _US_ ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/10 "2020-11-01T20:11:40Z")
Iā€™m just waiting for someone to sell it to somebody, like they used to do with the Brooklyn Bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/11 "2020-11-01T20:15:05Z")
_Perhaps_ in fifty or a hundred years from now, when people are establishing off-world colonies (or _possibly_ building interstellar manned spacecraft), weā€™ll want to locate and capture this asteroid as a source of raw materials. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/12 "2020-11-01T21:14:09Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > _Perhaps_ in fifty or a hundred years from now, when people are establishing off-world colonies (or _possibly_ building interstellar manned spacecraft), weā€™ll want to locate and capture this asteroid as a source of raw materials No reason to make any special effort for this one. Another stupid aspect of this story is that _most_ asteroids are enriched in trace elements relative to the Earthā€™s crust. There is literally nothing about Psyche that makes it any more valuable per unit volume than hundreds of thousands of other asteroids. > [@The practicalities of mining asteroids](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-practicalities-of-mining-asteroids/786397/15): > > For many of the elements that are rare on Earthā€™s surface, those geological processes that concentrated them concentrated them down to the Earthā€™s core. In a differentiated asteroid, those same elements would be concentrated into the asteroidā€™s core. Luckily, most of the asteroids large enough to have differentiated into a core and mantle/crust have been blasted to bits and those pieces of core are floating around naked. According to [this](http://www.periodictable.com/Properties/A/CrustAbundance.al.log.html) chart the average concentration of gold in the Earthā€™ā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/13 "2020-11-01T21:14:25Z")
A mesosiderite? Well at least we now know how much Sudbury is worth. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/14 "2020-11-01T21:18:33Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > A mesosiderite? Well at least we now know how much Sudbury is worth ??? (Plus two more to reach five charactersā€“??) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/15 "2020-11-01T21:25:37Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > _Perhaps_ in fifty or a hundred years from now, when people are establishing off-world colonies (or _possibly_ building interstellar manned spacecraft), weā€™ll want to locate and capture this asteroid as a source of raw materials > > No reason to make any special effort for this one. Another stupid aspect of this story is that _most_ asteroids are enriched in trace elements relative to the Earthā€™s crust. There is literally nothing about Psyche that makes it any more valuable per unit volume than hundreds of thousands of other asteroids. I thought the appeal of this asteroid wasnā€™t the trace elements but the massive amount of iron. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/16 "2020-11-01T21:28:20Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I thought the appeal of this asteroid wasnā€™t the trace elements but the massive amount of iron. Iron asteroids are a dime a dozen. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/17 "2020-11-01T21:28:53Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > There is literally nothing about Psyche that makes it any more valuable per unit volume than hundreds of thousands of other asteroids. It _is_ richer in metals than most asteroids. This likely came from the core of a proto planet. Other asteroids mostly came from either coalescing from dust as they are, or are parts of the upper layers of proto planets that got broken up. There are thousands or tens of thousands of asteroids that are likely the same composition more or less, but they are going to be sized from refrigerators to small buildings. This one is hundreds of miles. If we do develop any sort of space mining operations, this will be an excellent location to start gather materials. Very little, if any, would make its way back to Earth. What needs we have here can be easily filled by those smaller asteroids you speak of. As far as the economy of it goes, sure, itā€™s not worth what CNN says, as there isnā€™t that much money in the world, not be orders of magnitude. However, it would be worth quite a bit, as there are useful materials, and they donā€™t have to be lifted from the Earth. OTOH, bringing back some of the platinum from it or from other rocks would damage the price of platinum, but thatā€™s not going to hurt the economy, just people that invest in platinum. What it could do is create all new industries and techniques, as platinum is actually an excellent catalyst for a number of chemical reactions and is also a great conductor. About half the cost of your catalytic converter is in the few grams of platinum in it. If cost were not a factor, we could probably make more efficient and smaller ones, if we didnā€™t mind using a couple ounces of it. We could save quite a bit of electricity if long distance transmission lines were made of platinum. Silly to even think about, when there isnā€™t enough mined in the history of mankind to go for more than a few dozen miles. Get a good supply though, and itā€™s not unthinkable. Iridium is another one. It has pretty much has no industrial or commercial applications, simply because there is not enough of it to do anything. If someone finds a great use for it, it wonā€™t matter, because they canā€™t get enough to actually use it for that application. Drop down a few thousand tons of it, and that may very well change. Pretty much everything else is better kept in space, though, as its primary value is its location. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/18 "2020-11-01T21:42:23Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > There are thousands or tens of thousands of asteroids that are likely the same composition more or less, but they are going to be sized from refrigerators to small buildings. Here are more than 30 m-type asteroids that have a Wikipedia page. > **[Category:M-type asteroids (Tholen)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:M-type_asteroids_(Tholen))** > > This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total. > The following 39 pages are in this category, out of 39 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/19 "2020-11-01T21:47:22Z")
That barely addresses, much less contradicts what I said. > **[16 Psyche](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Psyche)** > > 16 Psyche (/ĖˆsaÉŖkiĖ/ SY-kee) is a large M-type asteroid, which was discovered by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, on 17Ā March 1852 and named after the Greek goddess Psyche. > The prefix "16" signifies that it was the sixteenth minor planet in order of discovery. > It is the largest and most massive of the M-type asteroids, and one of the dozen most massive asteroids. It has a mean diameter of approximately 220 kilometers (140Ā mi) and contains about one percent of the mass of the aster A... > [@](#): > > It is one of the dozen most massive asteroids, containing about 1% of the mass of the asteroid belt, and is over 200 kilometres (120 mi) in diameter. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482/20 "2020-11-01T21:49:12Z")
This article is as misleading as saying that if the Moon were to be ground down into industrial gravel, that gravel would be worth a quadrillion on Earth. By that logic, **every** celestial body is worth a huge sum of mineral materials. With the headline, I was expecting the asteroid to be made of platinum, gold, or something. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expensive-asteroid-found/924482.md?page=2)