data indicate that the dark rock has a low density, akin to that of a pile sand or ribble loosely bound by gravity.
It reflects the same amount of sunlight, half as much as a chunk of carcoal, even from regions where a projectile has dug deep into the rock.
The uniformity indicates that the rock, classified as a C-type asteroid because it contains carbonaceous material, is a pristine relic of the early solar system.
It is a sandy body held together by
gravity alone...
I have come across some new (to me) info in the July 12th issue of Science
News. Two short articles on the same page that I will fax to you tomorrow.
First is called Waltzing past Mathilde. reference is to the main belt
asteroid 431 Mathilde passed by NEAR which spied 5 craters more than 20 km
in diameter (431 Mathilde is a 50km across potato). The pic I saw shows
only one. Question is how can this fellow still be there. An analysis of
"radio waves" suggests the answer. It is a sandy body held together by
gravity alone... Another interesting thought not expressed in the article
concerns the distribution of rotational speeds. I have a memory of this
too being consistant with objects being held together by gravity only. Do
you know anything about this?
Second article is about asteroid 3753. It is loosely bound to the Earth
and remains ~ 40 Earth-Moon distances from the Earth. It is on a stable
orbit with probable loss from a perturbation by Venus in ~ 8000 years.
Also there was an interesting article on the Mars Lander. Seems web sites
containing new pics scored 100 million hits in 5 days, a world record. So
people are interested in such things as never before seen alien landscapes.