What is the composition of an asteroid?

Asteroids are made of rock, metals and other elements. Some even contain water, astronomers say. Asteroids that are mostly stone sometimes are more like loose piles of rubble. Asteroids that are mostly iron are more, well, rock-solid.

What minerals do asteroids contain?

Minerals that can be found in asteroids are: iron, nickel, iridium, palladium, platinum, gold, and magnesium to name a few. Metal, however, is not the only thing that would be mined from asteroids. There is a certain interest in the mining of water.

What is the composition of meteors?

Composition. Almost all meteoroids contain extraterrestrial nickel and iron. They have three main classifications: iron, stone, and stony-iron. Some stone meteoroids contain grain-like inclusions known as chondrules and are called chondrites.

Why do asteroids differ in composition?

Why do asteroids and comets differ in composition? Asteroids formed inside the frost line, while comets formed outside. When do comets generally begin to form a tail? Where are the Trojan asteroids located?

What is the other name of asteroid?

They are also known as planetoids or minor planets. There are millions of asteroids, ranging in size from hundreds of miles to several feet across.

How is the composition of an asteroid determined?

The first is by composition. The typical composition of an asteroid depends on its distance from the Sun. At the outer edges of the asteroid belt, that is between three and three and a half times further from the Sun than the Earth, over eighty percent of the asteroids are known as C-type.

How big is the amount of platinum in an asteroid?

These ore grades mean that one 500-meter-wide platinum-rich asteroid could contain nearly 175 times the annual global platinum output, or 1.5 times the known world reserves of platinum group metals (“Asteroid composition”, 2012). Asteroid mining is a proposed approach to mining critical elements from these small bodies.

What kind of asteroids are there in our Solar System?

Asteroid mining shows promise as a method for obtaining critical elements. The asteroid belt in our solar system contains ~8% metal-rich (M type) asteroids and 75% volatile-rich carbonaceous (C type) asteroids (“Asteroid belt”, 2010).

How much money can be made from an asteroid?

However, Planetary Resources estimates that a single 30 meter long platinum-rich asteroid could contain $25 to $50 billion USD worth of platinum at today’s prices (Klotz, 2012). Clearly, once the proper infrastructure is in place, there is potential for significant profit.