It is thought that asteroids are made from the raw ingredients of the solar system, which came from supernova or exploding stars. The solidified debris from these explosions contains mainly dust, rocks, water ice and iron – actually an alloy of iron, nickel and cobalt, a natural stainless steel.
An example of the possible riches among this rubble of the solar system is the asteroid named Amun. This mile-wide object comes close to the Earth’s orbit, and it is likely that humanity will visit the asteroid and mine it away to nothing in the far future, because research indicates that Amun is made from that primordial stainless.
Planetary scientist, John Lewis, from the University of Arizona, estimates that the iron, nickel and cobalt in this single asteroid is worth about $20 000-billion at market prices. However, Amun is typical of perhaps only 5% of asteroids. Most asteroids contain more rock than metal. NASA plans to land a small robotic spacecraft on an asteroid within a few years – just one example of the belief that asteroids are both accessible and worth exploring.
