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Crushable Asteroids May Absorb Impacts




Crushable Asteroids May Absorb Impacts
Robert Irion
Daily inSight
November 10, 1999

     Some may resemble squeezable slabs of Styrofoam instead of brittle, dense
rocks that shatter on impact, according to a new study. Planetary scientists
have found striking similarities between craters blasted in soft soils in
the lab and the pattern of gouges on an asteroid named Mathilde. They
suggest that some asteroids absorb energy from collisions, growing smaller
and denser over time rather than breaking apart as other cosmic objects
pummel them.

Full story here:

http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/11101999/graphb.htm

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