Gold in Space: How Much Jewelry Could Be Made From Asteroids?

Gold in Space: How Much Jewelry Could Be Made From Asteroids?

Peter Morrell

Gold has fascinated humans for thousands of years, but Earth may be only a tiny piece of its story. Vast amounts of precious metals are believed to be locked inside asteroids drifting through space, untouched since the formation of the solar system. Curious just how much gold might be out there, the team at Kylar Mack decided to dig into the science, the estimates, and the implications, with an eye toward how much jewelry we could make if we could bring the gold from asteroids down to Earth. The result is this infographic, which looks at what asteroids are made of, how much they might be worth, and what it would actually mean if humanity could access space-based gold.


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Gold in Space: How Much Jewelry Could Be Made From Asteroids?

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What Are Asteroids Made Of?

Asteroids can have widely varying compositions. Some of these remnants from the early days of our solar system are pretty much just giant rocks, made of silicates like those in Earth’s crust. Others are carbon-rich, containing organic compounds, ice, and volatile materials. The most intriguing category, however, is metallic asteroids. These are thought to be fragments of failed planetary cores, and they’re rich in iron, nickel, and precious metals like gold, platinum, and iridium. It’s these metal-heavy asteroids that spark the most interest when people talk about asteroid mining.

How Much Is an Asteroid Worth?

The value of an asteroid could theoretically range from pennies per gram to trillions or even quadrillions of dollars, depending on its size and what it’s made of. 

When headlines claim a single asteroid is “worth more than the global economy,” they’re usually doing a simple calculation: Estimate how much metal is inside, then multiply by current market prices. However, even if an asteroid contains large amounts of valuable materials, the costs of getting it down to Earth could take a big bite out of the potential profits. That said, these estimates are still useful for illustrating just how concentrated some asteroids may be in valuable resources compared to anything we can mine on our planet.

Where Can We Find Gold in Asteroids?

Two asteroids that we definitely know contain gold are called Bennu and Ryugu. NASA and the Japanese space agency have collected samples of these near-Earth objects, and analysis showed that both contain trace amounts of gold, around 1 to 5 parts per billion, as well as many other elements.

But Bennu and Ryugu are just the beginning. To see how much gold an asteroid could contain, scientists have turned their focus to a much larger target: the asteroid 16 Psyche. Located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, 16 Psyche is unusually dense and believed to be mostly composed of metal. Scientists think this 140-mile-wide object may be the exposed core of a protoplanet that never fully formed. 

How Much Space Gold Is in Asteroid 16 Psyche?

While no one knows exactly how much gold 16 Psyche contains, models suggest that it could hold vast quantities of precious metals, including gold, platinum, and nickel. Examining asteroids with similar properties has led scientists to estimate that 16 Psyche could contain a gold concentration around 0.1 to 0.5 parts per million. That doesn’t sound like much, but multiplied by the asteroid’s size, it adds up to a potential 5 to 15 million metric tons of gold, far more than humans have ever mined on Earth. The value of all of that precious metal would reach around $10 quintillion at today’s gold prices!

We’ll know a lot more about 16 Psyche in a few more years: A NASA spacecraft is on the way to the metallic asteroid right now, and it should get there in 2029. Then, it will begin orbiting 16 Psyche and collecting data to help us learn about its composition.

How Does 16 Psyche’s Gold Content Compare to the Amount of Gold in the World?

From what we know so far, this golden asteroid could contain more than 45 times the amount of gold mined in all of human history.

All of the gold ever mined on Earth only adds up to around 216,265 metric tons. If you melted down the total amount of gold in the world, including everyone’s gold jewelry, coins, and even the bits of gold found in electronics, and you formed it all into a cube, it would be 72 feet wide on each side. This amount would only fill up about three Olympic-sized swimming pools. 

If we then took all of the gold in the world and divided it up so that each person on Earth got an equal share, we’d get around 26 grams of gold per person, enough to make two standard wedding bands out of solid 24-karat gold. At today’s gold prices, we’d all be around $3,700 richer. But that’s a paltry sum compared to what we’d get from 16 Psyche — or is it?

What Would Happen if We All Got a Share of 16 Psyche’s Gold?

If the gold from 16 Psyche were somehow mined and evenly distributed among everyone on Earth, each person would receive 1.2 kilograms of gold. That’s enough to make around 90 solid gold rings! At today’s prices, we’d all have around $170,000 worth of precious metal.

Don’t count your riches yet, though. Adding a few million tons of gold to the world’s supply would surely tank the value of this suddenly not-so-precious metal. Gold’s value depends on its rarity; flooding the market with the metal from 16 Psyche would dramatically reduce its price. Jewelry would be more affordable, but gold would likely lose much of its status as a symbol of wealth. It’s likely that it would become primarily an industrial material, valued for its conductivity and corrosion resistance instead of as a luxury good.

Fortunately, you don’t have to wait for a boom in asteroid mining to be able to wear stylish gold jewelry. With Kylar Mack, you can buy affordable gold bracelets, necklaces, anklets, and rings that are sturdy enough for everyday wear and beautiful enough that you’ll never want to take them off. Shop with us today to make luxe gold jewelry part of your lifestyle.

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