THE

MATERIALS
ISSUE Types of Asteroids Locations of Known Asteroids

Only one third of Rocky, carbon-rich Of the 585,081 The innermost

Number of asteroids every 560,000 miles

4,000
1 percent of all known asteroids peaks have the
asteroids have between the most accurate
known composition, Rocky, silicon-rich sun and Jupiter, asteroid
mostly from ground- 562,224 are in counts, as
3,000
based telescopic the main belt rocks at the
observations. between Mars inner edge of
Of those 1,665 and Jupiter. the asteroid
classified objects, belt are easier
Metal-rich 2,000
fewer than 300 have to see from
metal-rich surfaces. Unusual Earth.

1,000

Sun Earth Mars

ONE OF A KIND Vesta is unique

Elemental among large asteroids, so geologists
Breakdown can identify meteorites that came from
it. Analysis of those meteorites allowed
scientists to map chemical abundances
100% 1% 0.01% 0.0001%

SPACE
in more detail than ever before.

Sb
Sc Cd
P
Pr S O Sm
C B Ag Co
Cl

METAL
EARTH Y
Al U Mn Sc
Mn Si Ti
Th Si
Tm Sr
Pb Bi Mg Rb
Hg Na Cl
Fe VESTA
Each segment of these charts Eu
represents the relative mass What do scientists know about
Zr
abundance of each element mining’s final frontier?
in that body. Moving from the
Ba
center out, each ring represents
Th sToRY B Y Laura Geggel and Katie Peek
1 percent of the ring inside
it. The gray portions are the U
remaining unknown elements.

Birth of a Minable Asteroid

1 More than 4 billion 2 A nearby supernova

Asteroid Illustrations: John MacNeill (4); Background Image:

years ago, the dust released radioactive

floating around the aluminum-26, which
sun began to clump collected in newly
together to form larger forming asteroids.
bodies—asteroids and The heat from the
planets—in the early radioactive decay
Datacraft Co., LTD/Getty Images

solar system. melted the surrounding

material. Heavier
metals sank to the
center while rock
floated to the surface.

60 POPULAR SCIENCE NOVEMBER 2012 SOURCES: The Chemistry of the Solar System, Katharina Lodders and Bruce Fegley, Jr., 2011; jet propulsion laboratory small-body database,
ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb_query.cgi; Baer, J., Chesley, S., and Britt, D., Eds., Asteroid Masses V3.0 NASA Planetary Data System, April 2012

PSC1112_WL_SpaceMetal R1.indd 60 9/18/12 5:29 PM

 Rest of the
Asteroid Masses asteroid belt
Ceres

At certain Some 5,402 Dwarf planet Ceres makes

distances, asteroids, known as up a third of the asteroid
Jupiter’s Trojans, circle the belt by mass. Only 55
gravitational sun in a gravitational other asteroids have been
influence safe haven around weighed so far, since
calculating the mass 46 others
ejects smaller Jupiter. Psyche
asteroids, requires observing the Eunomia
creating gaps gravitational tug it gives Herculina
in their spatial another passing body, such Davida Vesta
distribution. as another asteroid or a Interamnia
visiting spacecraft. Euphrosyne Hygiea Pallas

Jupiter 558 million miles

A Selection of Asteroid Visitations

Mission: Galileo Mission: Deep

I
n April, Planetary Resources, a newly Date: 1991–1993 Space 1
formed private space company, announced Targets: Gaspra, Ida, Date: 1999
that it would begin mining asteroids for Dactyl [pictured] Target: Braille
water in 2020. Asteroids, the firm said, could
also be a valuable source of platinum-group
elements (PGEs), six metals used in industrial
Mission: Stardust Mission: NEAR Mission: Rosetta
chemical reactions and devices such as Date: 2002 Shoemaker Date: 2008–2010
catalytic converters. Earth contains only four Target: Annefrank Date: 1997–2001 Targets: Steins,
high-grade PGE deposits, and the demand for Targets: Eros Lutetia [pictured]
the metals is increasing. But is there enough [pictured], Mathilde
information to know where to dig? The basics
are clear—how asteroids form, where they are
located, and, roughly, what they’re composed
of—but details are scarce. Upcoming missions, Mission: Hayabusa
Date: 2005–2007
including those by Planetary Resources’ own Mission: Dawn Target: Itokawa
prospecting spacecraft, may fill in some of the Date: 2011–2015 Mission: Osiris-REx
holes. But if space mining is to work, prospec- Targets: Vesta Date: 2019–2021
tors will need much more accurate information [pictured], Ceres Target: 1999 RQ36
about the solar system and its minerals.
Mission: Hayabusa-2
Date: 2018–2019
Target: 1999 JU3
Second Row: Courtesy NASA (2); Courtesy European Space Agency;
Third Row: Courtesy Japan Aerospace Explorati on Agency (JAXA);

3 4
Asteroid and Spacecraft Images, Top Row: Courtesy NASA (2);

When passing rocks Eventually some chunks

Fourth Row: Courtesy NASA, Courtesy JAXA, Courtesy NASA

smashed into layered of the original asteroids

asteroids, they stripped escaped the asteroid
away the rocky crust belt and landed on
and exposed the Earth. Scientists use
metallic core. The these meteorites to
resulting asteroids, learn about the parent
with their cores asteroid’s composition,
exposed, are miners’ information that could
best hope for finding guide future space
platinum-group mining.
elements in space.

AD DI T I oN AL R EP oR TIN G B Y Miriam Kramer NOVEMBER 2012 POPULAR SCIENCE 61

PSC1112_WL_SpaceMetal R1.indd 61 9/18/12 5:30 PM

Copyright of Popular Science is the property of Bonnier Corporation and its content may not be copied or
emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission.
However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.