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Survival of the weakest

Many asteroids have a porous structure, which helps them absorb energy from collisions without being smashed to bits. This shows how planets might have formed, but could be bad news should an asteroid ever threaten Earth.

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Figure 1: What are asteroids made of?

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Correspondence to Erik Asphaug.

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Asphaug, E. Survival of the weakest. Nature 402, 127–128 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/45935

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/45935

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