Why asteroid that could make everyone on Earth a billionaire is worth £8,000,000,000,000,000,000

The mind-melting value of the '16 Psyche' asteroid has been explained by its official estimator Linda Elkins-Tanton.

NASA has a specific interest in this celestial entity and announced back in 2023 that it was preparing to launch an orbiting spacecraft to hopefully harvest its precious materials, which include nickel, gold and iron.

Elkins-Tanton, who works at Arizona State University as foundation professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and is the '16 Psyche' mission's principal investigator, developed her $10,000 quadrillion (£8,000 quadrillion) price on the rock eight years ago - one that could make every single person on Earth a billionaire.

"The critical thing, of course, is that the estimate is meaningless in every way," she claimed. "First, we have absolutely no available technology for bringing Psyche back to Earth.

A model of the 16 Psyche asteroid (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

"And even if we did, the abundance of its metal would immediately render metals valueless on the markets. But, nonetheless, it was a fun exercise!"

Weighing in on the makeup of the asteroid itself, she continued: "We assume the metal in Psyche is iron and nickel, since that is the composition of all the metal meteorites that have fallen to Earth, and that is what we think the Earth's core is made of."

Elkins-Tanton also provided a chart illustrating how iron accounts for 94% of the mass of the average metallic meteorite, which typically contains 5% nickel and tiny amounts of iridium, gallium, tungsten, cobalt, gold, copper, platinum and rhenium.

She did, however, go on to stress that scientists can't categorically confirm what 16 Psyche consists of just yet.

"We will find out what it really is when we get there," she noted.

Yet theoretically, judging by years of meteor landings on our planet, this absolute behemoth of a space traveller - measuring 173 miles (280 km) across and 144 miles (232 km) long - will command the highest price ever recorded for one.

nasa 16 psyche

This comes after Nicola Fox of NASA's science mission directorate said: "Psyche is by far the largest [asteroid], and that's why we want to go to it. Because the smaller ones are more likely to have been changed by things impacting them, whereas the big one, we think, is going to be completely unchanged.”

As for when its orbiting mission should wrap up, allowing NASA to carry immensely valuable bits of Psyche down to Earth, that's apparently scheduled for November 2031.

It first launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center in October 2023.