Latest news with #Psyche
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This $10 Quintillion Discovery Shows Why Bitcoin Is Better Than Gold
A gargantuan but difficult-to-access gold mine was discovered a few years ago. The asteroid might have enough gold in it to drive prices down sharply, if it's ever mined and sold. Bitcoin can't ever experience the same type of problem. 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin › Precious metals are only rare when you confine your perspective to what's available on this planet at this moment in time. On that note, 16 Psyche, an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, is estimated to contain between $10 quintillion and $700 quintillion worth of gold and other precious metals, meaning that the rock could have reserves of vastly more than all the bullion mined on Earth so far. What's more, NASA launched a probe in late 2023 and expects it to reach the asteroid in 2029 to survey its composition in more detail. The odds of a space mining rig ever getting established and shipping ore back to Earth are incredibly remote and not worth pricing into any of your financial models. But even if none of that asteroid's metal ever lands on Earth, the mere possibility of it happening significantly undermines gold's claim to lasting scarcity in the big picture of things. Bitcoin, (CRYPTO: BTC) on the other hand, faces no such threat. Earth-bound investors like to think of gold as a finite store of value. It's cumbersome to mine more of the metal and requires a lot of capital investment. The planet already houses approximately 216,265 tonnes -- or about $16 trillion worth of gold at today's spot price. By comparison, that single asteroid that has captured people's attention theoretically holds enough metal to multiply that supply millions of times over. Flood the market with even a fraction of that supply, and the price of gold would collapse overnight. Asteroid mining on any commercial scale is decades away and would be wildly expensive -- and we don't yet know what 16 Psyche actually contains -- so gold's scarcity is still in play today and for the foreseeable future. Still, the thought experiment reminds us that gold's scarcity is geological and effort-constrained, not guaranteed as a result of any property of the metal itself. Bitcoin's scarcity is different, and over the very long run, likely to get worse rather than better, meaning it should get more valuable over time. Its software hard-codes a lifetime issuance cap of 21 million coins. Roughly 19.7 million of that sum already circulates, and the reward for creating the rest keeps shrinking every four years in an event called the halving. The next halving should occur late in the first half of 2028. Unlike gold, no cosmic mother lode can dilute the coin's holders. The protocol's math is indifferent to new mining techniques, improved refineries, better drills, or interplanetary miners. A science fiction supply shock from asteroid mining is fun to ponder, but probably won't be realized in our lifetime. Investors need concrete portfolio logic to allocate their capital, so here are three reasons why Bitcoin is more deserving of their allocation than gold in today's economy. First, the asset is not always tightly correlated with the rest of the market and the economy during times of turbulence, as the cause of turbulence often reasonably affects the demand for commodities like gold. For instance, instability in a country that houses a lot of gold mining companies might cause the price of gold to be highly unpredictable during a time that the market is otherwise tranquil, but that probably won't ever happen with Bitcoin because it isn't exposed to the same set of geography-related risks. In 2024, Bitcoin sometimes traded like a tech stock, yet its relationship with other macro assets, including gold, remains inconsistent. When U.S. markets wobbled under the "Liberation Day" tariff fears this spring, Bitcoin rallied 15% while the wider market sagged, signaling its capacity to zig when equities zag, even if it isn't guaranteed. Second, the coin behaves more like an inflation hedge in countries with weaker fiat currencies than in it does in developed economies. That dynamic could widen as more people face currency debasement and face the risk of capital controls, which are both problems gold historically mitigated. The difference is that it's much easier to transfer Bitcoin across borders, making it more attractive than physical gold. Finally, Bitcoin's supply curve generates significant upside, but gold's doesn't. Gold's supply grows roughly 1.5% annually. Bitcoin's growth will fall below 0.5% after the 2028 halving, and eventually to zero. Past halvings preceded multiyear bull runs. Meanwhile, volatility has trended lower with each cycle, offering the potential for a smoother ride to committed holders over the years. It might not ever be as easy of an asset to hold as gold from an emotional perspective, as its price will probably always be far more volatile than that of any precious metal, but it'll probably continue to outperform gold, too. So at least investors might get some compensation for the lost sleep. Still, none of this eliminates risk. Bitcoin can experience sharp swings in its value. But scarcity that can only intensify, that plus utility that grows with global adoption give it an investment thesis gold can't match. Short-term price action can be bad for holders, but over the long term, it has reliably rewarded those with patience and I predict the same for the future. Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $998,376!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025 Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This $10 Quintillion Discovery Shows Why Bitcoin Is Better Than Gold was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Scientific American
23-06-2025
- Science
- Scientific American
NASA's Psyche Spacecraft, Exploring Solar System Origins, Is Back on Track after Thrusters Lost Power
The robotic spacecraft Psyche has regained propulsion after a snag cut its propellant system in April. Engineers had to switch to a backup system, and full thruster operations resumed last week. The satellite is now on schedule to fly by Mars in May 2026—and then slingshot into orbit around a very unusual asteroid (also named Psyche) in August 2029. The propulsion problem had put this schedule, and indeed the entire mission, in jeopardy for a while. 'In another few weeks, if some things we tried didn't work, the blood pressure would have started to rise,' says Linda Elkins-Tanton, the mission's principal investigator and a planetary scientist at Arizona State University. Why It Matters About 4.5 billion years ago, our solar system was a cloud of gas and dust with no planets. Astronomers used to think planets grew very slowly, over hundreds of millions of years, as gravity gradually clumped the gas and dust together. But more recent evidence points to a much faster process involving high-energy hit-and-run collisions among dust, pebbles and rocks that crashed together and then got blown apart within a short time. Some of these crashes might have melted metals to form a core (such as the one found at the center of Earth) and surrounded it with a rocky rind. Our planet's core is many hundreds of miles deep, however—too far down to observe directly and accurately. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. But the asteroid Psyche, circling the sun between Mars and Jupiter, may have an exposed metal core. Radar reflections indicate this is at least partially so, says Jim Bell, an Arizona State University planetary scientist, who is in charge of the Psyche spacecraft's multispectral imaging cameras. 'If it was covered by rock, we wouldn't get the signal that we're seeing,' he says. That signal indicates substances composed primarily of nickel and iron. So a flyby of the asteroid could provide the first close-up view of what a planet's core looks like and answer questions about how it formed. What's Next The problem with the craft's xenon gas thrusters appeared to be caused by a defective valve, and when engineers switched to a second fuel line, the craft regained motion. When Psyche meets up with its asteroid namesake in 2029, the probe's instruments should be able to detect any uncovered core metal that collisions have blasted clean of rock. The orientation of magnetic particles in that core, like tiny compass needles, could indicate whether the asteroid once had a magnetic dynamo, as Earth's core does. Remarkably, if there were impacts of debris on the molten metal, they could have splashed up and then frozen, leaving sharp cliffs for spacecraft cameras to show us. More about Psyche The asteroid Pysche orbits at about three astronomical units, or AU, from the sun (Earth's orbit is at one AU). It's often described as 'potato shaped,' with a diameter of 140 miles and a surface area of 64,000 square miles.
Indian Express
19-05-2025
- Science
- Indian Express
Scientists say asteroid ‘Vesta' might be a piece of a planet that no longer exists
Asteroid Vesta, long considered to be a stalled protoplanet, may actually be just a fragment of a larger world that once existed in our solar system. New research suggests that Vesta may not have the dense core that differentiated planetary bodies usually have. Due to spin-rate data and gravity-field mapping, a new study by Michigan State University researchers published on April 23, in Nature Astronomy, has challenged previous assumptions that gave Vesta with the status of an embryonic planet based on NASA's 2012 Dawn mission. Instead, the study has suggested, Vesta may have been ejected from a different world in a massive collision that is estimated to have occurred 4.5 billion years ago. Vesta does not exactly fit the model of a planet, as per the study. The radio Doppler signals were refined using enhanced calibration techniques, confirming the lack of a metal-rich core that had been disputed by previous research. Seth Jacobson of Michigan State University, who led the research, stated that the new interpretation marks a major shift in planetary science. Although Vesta's volcanic, basaltic surface still shows signs of geological activity, its internal homogeneity defies what one might expect from a body that has undergone complete differentiation, Jacobson said. This paradox has caused scientists to reconsider the asteroid'sheritage. Vesta started to differentiate but never made much progress. However, howardite-eucrite-diogenites (HEDs), which are meteorites thought to have formed in Vesta, lack any evidence of this kind of incomplete differentiation. Instead, Jacobson and his team have claimed that their study supports the theory that Vesta was created by material that was blasted off of a fully formed planet during an ancient planetary collision. This theory might also explain Vesta's volcanic surface without requiring that it have a broad core, they said. The study raises doubts about Vesta's identification and also raises the prospect of a wider theory that other asteroids might also potentially be fragments of broken planets. This viewpoint may eventually be confirmed by the gravity investigations planned for the upcoming decades by NASA's Psyche and ESA's Hera missions. According to Jacobson, Vesta's makeup might even suggest that it shared an origin with Earth or other early planets, which might completely change the field of asteroid science. Vesta is the second most massive body in the main asteroid belt, accounting for almost nine per cent of the total mass of all asteroids. In that area of rocky debris between Mars and Jupiter, the only dwarf planet larger than it is Ceres. Vesta was discovered in Bremen, Germany, on March 29, 1807 by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers. He had also discovered Pallas (a large asteroid, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter). He believed, wrongly, that Ceres and Pallas were pieces of a destroyed planet and found Vesta while looking for more evidence. It was the fourth asteroid ever discovered. Upon discovery, Olbers let German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss name the asteroid. Gauss named the celestial body 'Vesta' after the Roman goddess of the hearth and home. From July 16, 2011 to September 5, 2012, NASA's Dawn spacecraft circled Vesta before leaving and beginning its mission to the dwarf planet Ceres. The giant asteroid is almost spherical, and was nearly classified as a dwarf planet. Unlike the majority of known asteroids, Vesta is differentiated. This means that it has separated into a core, mantle, and crust. The brightness range of Vesta is among the widest of any solid body in our solar system. While the black material is believed to have been material left behind by previous asteroids that crashed into Vesta, the light materials seem to be native rocks. (This article has been curated by Disha Gupta, who is an intern with the Indian Express)
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Aeon Media Relaunches Psyche.co, Further Elevating the Standard for Psychology and Wellbeing Content Online
Sleek new design and innovative content types aim to deepen user experience and cut through the noise of today's psychology and mental health landscape LONDON, May 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aeon Media's unique and free digital magazine for thoughtful exploration of psychology and the human experience, is excited to announce the relaunch of its website on 12 May 2025. Amid a landscape saturated with hype, misinformation, and algorithm-driven advice, Psyche aims to be a wise, trustworthy companion for anyone navigating the complexities of life. The platform offers rich, multidisciplinary perspectives and advice from psychologists, philosophers, artists, anthropologists and more – all in service of helping readers know themselves and live well. Launched in 2020, Psyche remains one of the few digital publications to offer completely free, zero advertising, expert-led content in the wellbeing space. The relaunch brings not only a fresh visual identity but also new content formats and intuitive site architecture, creating a more engaging and immersive user experience. Key updates include: Website redesign – refined and immersiveThe new look is streamlined and elegant, offering a sleek and focused reading environment across devices. It reflects Psyche's commitment to thoughtfulness, clarity, and accessibility. New content formats – Life StoriesOne of the powerful additions to the Psyche experience, Life Stories features deeply personal essays, intimate profiles, and beautifully produced portrait videos that highlight the resilience and insight of remarkable individuals. Building on success – Psyche's signature GuidesWe have expanded and enhanced this popular content type to further support readers to live well, learn practical skills and change habits. New site sections – Heal, Transcend, Connect, UnderstandTo make exploration more intuitive, Psyche has reorganised its library into four thematic pillars, helping users discover content aligned with their interests and needs. Psyche achievements: Since launching, Psyche has grown a large, global audience and engaged following Psyche content is regularly picked-up and endorsed by professional bodies and industry press, including The American Psychological Association, The British Psychological Society and Behavioral Scientist. Frequently praised and shared by many respected figures in psychology, psychiatry and related disciplines, many of whom have also contributed to the magazine 'With this relaunch, we remain committed to our overarching mission to bring expert insights, advice and perspectives to people who are facing psychological difficulties or who simply want a wise companion on their path through life,' says Dr Christian Jarrett, Psyche's Editor. 'We understand that with so much misinformation and bad science online, including ubiquitous computer-generated summaries, it can be difficult to know who or what to trust. We work carefully with human experts, clinicians and scholars, to bring you their genuine lived knowledge and wisdom. As a non-profit, we are also in a fortunate position. Without the need to sensationalise or resort to hype, we can prioritise quality and trustworthiness in everything we publish.' The reimagined Psyche website will launch on 12 May, and visitors can explore at About PsycheLaunched in 2020, Psyche is a digital magazine to help you understand yourself and live well. Every Psyche article is commissioned, edited and queried multiple times by our specialist psychology, philosophy and social science editors. We also carefully vet our writers, who include clinical psychologists, psychologist-researchers, teachers, doctors, philosophers and anthropologists. Psyche is published by Aeon Media. [Media assets available on request] CONTACT: For media inquiries, interviews, or collaborations, please contact: Media Contact: Lauren Macnab (Head of Marketing and Communications) Company Name: Aeon Media Website: Email Address: in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Laurie Leshin stepping down as director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Laurie Leshin speaks with former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. | Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA's main center for planetary exploration will soon come under new leadership. Laurie Leshin announced today (May 7) that she'll step down from her role as director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California in June, after more than three years in charge. She'll be replaced by David Gallagher, JPL's current associate director for strategic integration. In an email to JPL employees, which was obtained by Leshin said she intends to focus on re-launching her research program at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which manages JPL for NASA, and also on her family, which is still experiencing the impacts of the Eaton fire. "This event is still deeply impacting my daily life, as I know it is for so many of you," she wrote to JPL staff. Leshin will continue her role as a Caltech faculty member — specifically, Bren Professor of Geochemistry and Planetary Science, according to a JPL statement that was released today. Leshin has seen JPL through a number of high-profile successes during her time in the director's chair. "I am proud of the many things JPL has accomplished over the past three years," Leshin said in the JPL statement. The EMIT, SWOT, Psyche, PREFIRE, Europa Clipper and SPHEREx missions all launched during her tenure, and NISAR, which she also helped oversee, is scheduled to launch next month. 'In addition to the long list of missions that have launched or moved toward launch during that time, we saved Voyager more than once and flew into history on Mars with Ingenuity. We have made more amazing scientific discoveries than I can name, including finding potential ancient Martian biomarkers with Perseverance," she added. "And we've driven the forefront of technology on Earth and in space. I know those achievements will continue under Dave's capable leadership." Related stories: — NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL): Facts & information — Perseverance rover: Everything you need to know — Europa Clipper: A complete guide to NASA's astrobiology mission Gallagher has been at JPL for 36 years and has held numerous positions at the NASA lab. He has served as manager for JPL's Advanced Optical Systems Program Office, for example, as well as deputy director for Astronomy, Physics and Space Technology. "Laurie has made a significant impact on energizing and focusing the lab, guiding it back on track after the Covid-19 pandemic. I wish her great success in this next chapter of her career, and I look forward to a very smooth transition at the lab," Gallagher said in the JPL statement. Leshin described Gallagher as "the right leader at the right time for the Lab" in her message to employees. Near the end of that message, she said that "leading JPL has been the honor of a lifetime."
