IT’S ASTER-NOMICAL

NASA is sending a spacecraft to explore an asteroid which is more valuable than the world’s economy.

The 156 mile-wide body, named 16 Psyche, contains iron that would be worth £8,000 quadrillion if it were transported back to Earth.

This would be enough to cause the world’s economy – worth £50trillion – to collapse, experts say.

Believed to be remnants of a planet, it is 17 times bigger than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Nasa is scheduled to launch the craft in August next year. Mission leader Lindy Elkins-tanton said: “It’s really the final phase.”