News Digest

See if you can catch it tonight: $5.5trn asteroid will fly past Earth

An asteroid will pass just 1.5 million miles from Earth tonight with some onlookers interested in more than just its scientific importance. Asteroid 2011 UW-158 will pass 30 times closer than our nearest planet at about 5pm (EDT), according to astronomers. There is no danger – it will not be visible to the naked eye and will not pass as close to Earth again for another three years. But much of the interest in the asteroid, which measures about half-a-mile across, is in its core of platinum and worth an estimated $5.5trn. Peter H Diamandis, co-founder of Planetary Resources, which is leading the race to mine other celestial bodies, said: 'Our team is developing the technology that will enable humanity to create an off-planet economy that will fundamentally change the way we live on Earth.’

What makes this unusual is the large amount of platinum believed to be lurking in the body of this space visitor. Can it be mined someday, perhaps not too far in the future?

Astronomer Bob Berman

Planetary Resources launched a spacecraft from the ISS on Thursday last week beginning a 90-day mission to test the avionics, control systems and software needed to mine asteroids. There will be plenty of obstacles other than technical for anyone hoping to mine asteroids to overcome. Astronomer Bob Berman said: “There’s the little matter of the 1967 Space Treaty and almost all countries have signed that saying no nations can claim a celestial body but it doesn’t say anything about companies, corporations, firms, private entities. Nations cannot claim a celestial object but a private company can so if they can get there and they can mine it with all that platinum then good luck to them, it’s all theirs.”