ASTEROIDS usually spell doom and gloom – but some could actually make you super rich. How so, you might ask? Many are actually full of useful materials worth a few bob back on Earth. According to Asterank, the most juicy of the lot comes in at over $100trillion / £74trillion. Davida is one of the […]
ASTEROIDS usually spell doom and gloom – but some could actually make you super rich.
How so, you might ask?
Many are actually full of useful materials worth a few bob back on Earth.
According to Asterank, the most juicy of the lot comes in at over $100trillion / £74trillion.
Davida is one of the biggest asteroids known to humankind and thought to be the most valuable.
The 202 miles-wide rock is said to hold a number of rich bits.
Those include nickel, iron, cobalt, nitrogen, hydrogen and ammonia.
But before you start planning your trip into space, Davida is not believed to be the most cost effective asteroid worth mining.
That’s because it orbits the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is way out.
The one you really want to go for is Ryugu which, in theory, would cost a lot less to grab because it sometimes crosses Earth’s orbit.
Its value is estimated to be at $82.76billion / £61.15billion, netting you a tidy profit of $30.08billion / £22.22billion.
So how do scientists work it out?
According to Asterank, “accurate, up-to-date information from world markets and scientific papers” are used to make their estimates.
Though they admit we actually know “very little about the composition of asteroids” for a more exact valuation.
In other news, NASA has slammed Russia after a missile it fired into one of its own satellites forced the space station to perform an emergency swerve.
Scientists have figured out how fast a type of dinosaur could run – and it would have given Usain Bolt a run for his money.
And Google has confirmed that some of its smartphones are unable to call emergency services due to a software bug.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk
