Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Asteroid Bennu as viewed in this mosaic montage using images from NASA OSIRIS-REx return sample spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

In the last several years, a spate of up-close encounters and smash-ups with various asteroids has taken place.  Interestingly, the rubble pile composition of asteroids has been surprising in several cases.

Asteroid probes from several nations have found countless pieces of gravel and boulders loosely bound together by the object’s own small gravity field.

This revelation is drifting through the planetary defense community. How best to deal with incoming space rocks that are double-trouble: Bad for Earth, but also tough to deal with due to their makeup?

Go to my new Space.com story – “Could we defend Earth against a ‘rubble pile’ asteroid?” at:

https://www.space.com/asteroids-rubble-piles-earth-planetary-defense