Antimatter is the most expensive type of matter in the world , costing $3.5 x 10¹⁶ per gram of antiprotons.
The world's only antimatter plant is located at CERN. Photo: Business Insider
After a seven-year journey covering nearly 6.4 billion kilometers, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned 255 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu on September 24, 2023. The NASA mission had a budget of $800 million, and the final cost for the 255 grams of material was approximately $1.16 billion. But this isn't the most expensive material on the planet, according to Chris Impey, a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona.
Some asteroid samples are valued at $4.5 million per gram, approximately 70,000 times the price of gold, which has fluctuated between $60 and $70 per gram in recent years. The first extraterrestrial material brought back to Earth was from the Apollo program. From 1969 to 1972, six Apollo missions returned a total of 382 kg of lunar samples. The total cost of the Apollo program (adjusted for inflation) was $257 billion. These lunar rock samples are relatively valuable at around $674,000 per gram.
NASA is planning to bring Martian samples back to Earth in the early 2030s to see if they contain traces of ancient life. The Mars Sample Return mission aims to bring back 30 sample tubes with a total weight of approximately 450g. The Perseverance rover has already stored 10 sample tubes. However, costs are increasing due to the mission's complexity, involving multiple robots and spacecraft. Bringing the samples back could cost $11 billion, meaning a cost of $24 million per gram, five times higher than the cost of the Bennu sample.
Some meteorites are inexpensive because nearly 50 tons of free samples from the solar system rain down on Earth every day. Most burn up in the atmosphere, but if they land on the ground, they are called meteorites, and most come from asteroids. Meteorites can be expensive because they are difficult to identify and recover. The rocks all look the same unless distinguished by a geologist. Most meteorites are in the form of rocks called chondrites and cost around $0.50 per gram.
Iron meteorites can be distinguished by their dark outer layer due to the molten surface as they fly through the atmosphere, along with long metallic crystal lattices inside. They are valued at $1.77/g or higher. Pallasite is an iron-rock meteorite interbedded with olivine minerals. When cut and polished, they are translucent yellow-green and can be valued at over $35/g.
Some meteorites have traveled to Earth from the Moon and Mars. Nearly 600 meteorites have been identified as originating from the Moon, with the largest specimen, weighing 1.8 kg, selling for $166 per gram. Approximately 175 meteorites have been identified as originating from Mars. Specimens of this type can be worth around $388 per gram.
Some elements and minerals are very expensive because they are scarce. Simple elements in the periodic table have low prices. Per 100g, carbon costs $2.40, iron less than $0.01, and aluminum $0.19. The value of silver and gold is $0.50/g and $67/g, respectively. Seven radioactive elements are extremely rare in nature and so difficult to produce in a laboratory that their value far exceeds NASA's Mars Sample Return mission. Polonium-209, the most expensive of these, is worth $49 billion/g.
Gemstones are also highly valuable. High-quality emeralds are worth 10 times the price of gold, and white diamonds are 100 times more expensive than gold. Some diamonds contain boron impurities, giving them a vibrant blue color; they are found in only a few mines in the world and are worth $19 million per gram.
The most expensive man-made material is a tiny spherical carbon "cage" with nitrogen atoms trapped inside. The atoms inside the cage are extremely stable and can be used for timing. Endohedral fullerene is made of carbon and is used to create extremely accurate atomic clocks. It is worth $141 million per gram.
Antimatter exists in nature, but is extremely rare because whenever an antiparticle is created, it is quickly annihilated by other particles and emits radiation. The particle accelerator at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) can produce 10 million antiprotons per minute, but at that rate, it would take billions of years and cost one quadrillion USD to produce 28 grams of antiparticles, meaning each gram costs $3.5 x 10¹⁶ USD.
An Khang (According to Science Alert )
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