Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/02/unusual-asteroid-could-be-worth-10000-quadrillion.html
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Just happened to be watching this video from the tremendously knowledgeable and informative Scott Manley at this very moment!!!
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Curious why this particular representation was chosen and not “10 quintillion” or even “10 billion billion”
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Methodical robotic asteroid farming! (or MRAF)
- find asteroids which contain useful elements (dares gold in them there 'stroids!)
- use a gravity tractor vehicle (or ram if one is hasty) to shift the orbit to a Lagrange point
- ?
- profit
can’t think of anything that would go wrong with moving massive asteroids closer in …nope
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I am ALL for mining these things and using them in space to build further fleets of vehicles for the off world colonies…just don’t be dragging them back anywhere near the home planet thank you very much!
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No problem
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I did a rough calculation in previous thread. A Great Lakes freighter worth of ore from low Earth orbit releases around a megaton of energy. That may or may not be significant for global warming, but it sure would mess up the drop zone.
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I thought people stopped valuing metalcore so much at least a decade ago.
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As is tradition
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I love the look of the asteroid. Is that an actual image of it, or an artist’s illustration?
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Wouldn’t elementary economics supply/demand immediately bring the value down after any substantial amount of the ore enters the market?
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“Oh my gollygosh look at this spectra line in the latest asteroid belt scan! There’re vast supplies of gold and platinum just waiting to be harvested out there!!”
[price of gold nudges significantly downwards … noted astronomer makes some strategic buys]
“'Arf-a-tick! there was a bit of crud on the lens there …nevermind! There’s no apparent gold out there at all …sorry!” (repeat as necessary)
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This could transform many sci-fi authors into future H.G. Wells.
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There’s a typo in the article that refers to the asteroid as a planet. I’m sure even Pluto would agree that it’s not.
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Technically it’s a minor planet.
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Hmmm, “minor planet.” I’ve been interested in space for my whole life and don’t think I’ve encountered this term before, which seems to include more or less everything that orbits a star other than major planets or comets, as well as asteroids, which I believe this is?
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The latter. Here’s a photo:
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There are a million quadrillions in a quintillion, and a million trillions in a quadrillion, and so on. Thus, 10,000 quadrillion is well short of a quintillion.
Better to use scientific notation, and lose any ambiguity. 10 quadrilliard is also a possibility.
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It also excludes dwarf planets such as Pluto, though that is of course another type of planet.
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