Asteroid mining could be worth trillions

According to Goldman Sachs, asteroid mining has the potential to produce the world's first trillionaires.

The asteroids that pass us by on a regular basis might not seem particularly valuable, but inside many of these spacefaring rocks there lies a fortune in gold, platinum and other minerals that could actually make space mining an extremely viable commercial venture.

Last year, investment banking firm Goldman Sachs published a 98-page report advocating asteroid mining as a potentially lucrative money-making opportunity for those willing to make the investment.

"While the psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high, the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower," wrote aerospace and materials analyst Noah Poponak.

"Prospecting probes can likely be built for tens of millions of dollars each and Caltech has suggested an asteroid-grabbing spacecraft could cost $2.6 billion."

Professor Michio Kaku has also commented on the opportunities of asteroid mining, noting that asteroids are essentially "a flying gold mine in outer space" filled with valuable resources.

Given that a single 3,000ft asteroid could contain as much as $5.4 trillion worth of platinum, anyone who succeeds in tapping in to this plentiful new resource could become very wealthy indeed.Smaller asteroids that don’t exceed 100 feet across are estimated to have precious metal contents of around $50 billion

Renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson agrees with Kaku’s prediction.

“The first trillionaire there will ever be is the person who exploits the natural resources on asteroids.”

Tyson believes that asteroid mining, which opens up a whole new, wider horizon, would help prevent future conflicts over resource access.

“There’s this vast universe of limitless energy and limitless resources. I look at wars fought over access to resources. That could be a thing of the past, once space becomes our backyard,” he said in a statement.

We may even see an asteroid 'gold rush' take place within the not-too-distant future.

Source: Inquisitr.com

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Hawaii 'lava dome' revealed in throwback image

This remarkable dome of churning molten magma was photographed in Hawaii by the US Geological Survey.

The incredible spectacle, which climbed as high as 65ft over a period of three days, was captured on camera during the 5-year-long Mauna Ulu eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano back in 1969.

Lava fountains like this one occur when gas bubbles from vents, fissures and lava tubes rapidly form and cause a huge jet of lava to shoot up in to the air.

Incredibly, the largest of them can grow to over 500 meters.

"A remarkably symmetrical dome fountain occasionally 20m high but usually half that, often welled from the eastern compartment [of the vents] for periods of several hours," the researchers wrote.

"Most of the lava from this fountain flowed away from the vent, but some formed a narrow river that poured back into the western compartment."

"Every few seconds, gases burst explosively from the western compartment, carrying spatter possibly derived from the lava drainback." This remarkable dome of churning molten magma was photographed in Hawaii by the US Geological Survey.

The incredible spectacle, which climbed as high as 65ft over a period of three days, was captured on camera during the 5-year-long Mauna Ulu eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano back in 1969.

Lava fountains like this one occur when gas bubbles from vents, fissures and lava tubes rapidly form and cause a huge jet of lava to shoot up in to the air.

Incredibly, the largest of them can grow to over 500 meters.

"A remarkably symmetrical dome fountain occasionally 20m high but usually half that, often welled from the eastern compartment [of the vents] for periods of several hours," the researchers wrote.

"Most of the lava from this fountain flowed away from the vent, but some formed a narrow river that poured back into the western compartment."

"Every few seconds, gases burst explosively from the western compartment, carrying spatter possibly derived from the lava drainback." 

Of course, Kīlauea is far from done. Only nine years later, the Pu'u 'Ō'ō eruption began - and it is still active today, producing regular spectacles of lava explosions.

What's particularly crazy is that's not even the longest continually active volcano on our planet. According to Guinness World Records, this honour belongs to Mt Stromboli in Italy.

Source: Sciencealert

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