Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Platinum Asteroid Worth Trillions Of Dollars Flies Past Earth

posted by janrinok on Tuesday July 21 2015, @01:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the waving-money-goodbye dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Asteroid UW-158 is set to wizz past Earth today, carrying an estimated five trillion dollars in platinum.

Spectroscopic analysis has revealed the composition of the asteroid, and made it a prime target for future asteroid-mining missions. It is approximately 452 metres by 1,011 metres in size. If the analysis is correct, it could be carrying an astonishing 90 million tons of platinum. It will swing past Earth at a distance of 2.4 million km, and will not be visible to the naked eye.

Paging Bruce Willis...

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Platinum Asteroid Worth Trillions Of Dollars Flies Past Earth | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 37 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by penguinoid on Tuesday July 21 2015, @07:00AM

    by penguinoid (5331) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @07:00AM (#211793)

    That's just ridiculous. Sure, that much platinum would alter the price but not by that much. First of all, the asteroid is likely to be controlled by a single entity, and they'll simply hoard most of it DeBeers style. Secondly, even if it flooded the market I doubt it would fall below the price of gold.

    --
    RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2