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NASA discovers the largest gold reserve in the universe... worth $700 quintillion!
After decades of NASA's observation of celestial bodies, dreaming of untapped wealth in the universe, the dream has become closer to reality with the discovery of a single asteroid containing wealth equivalent to many times the size of Earth's economies and the largest gold deposit in the universe.
Private companies and national agencies alike are monitoring asteroids not only for scientific purposes, but also for the raw materials they contain. At the forefront of these asteroids is 16 Psyche, a massive, metal-rich asteroid located in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter and a prime candidate in the accelerating space exploration race.
In 2019, astronomers astounded the public with rough estimates that Psyche's mineral reserves—iron, nickel, and gold—were worth up to $700 quintillion, a figure so vast it made headlines suggesting that "everyone on Earth could become a billionaire." This figure not only generated excitement but also sparked sobering debates about the future of mining and resource economics, including fears of a global market collapse, inflation, or the geopolitical scramble that might follow.
But extracting massive quantities of precious metals from an asteroid isn't just about machinery; it's also about logistics, cost, and timing. Even if Psyche possesses untold trillions of dollars in metals, flooding Earth's markets could destroy the value of those assets and ripple through financial systems. Meanwhile, the technical and legal hurdles—property rights in space, transportation costs, and in-orbit refining—have been addressed only with great difficulty.
As researchers prepare to study the asteroid Psyche more closely, the mission's findings will not only inform future mining efforts, but may also contribute to a better understanding of how planets form, how wealth is distributed in the solar system, and how fragile—or even fortunate—life on Earth actually is.
These asteroids are not just minerals; they carry history, dangers, and possibilities. Asteroids have reshaped our planet before, and they could do so again—which is precisely what NASA's latest mission seeks to prevent. It's a dramatic scenario made famous in the movie "Armageddon," in which a team of miners is sent into space to drill into an asteroid and prevent it from colliding with Earth.
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