Landing On an Asteroid Might Cause an Avalanche 35
coondoggie writes "As if landing on an asteroid wouldn't be dangerous enough, a new microgravity experiment on the forces generated by an asteroid and its make-up suggests landing on one may cause a big avalanche. The rubble and dust covering asteroids and comets can feel changes in what is known as 'force-chains' between particles over much larger distances than on Earth, making these surfaces less stable than previously imagined, said Dr. Ben Rozitis of the Open University, who presented his experiment's findings (abstract) on July 4 at the National Astronomy Meeting."
Empirical results differ (Score:5, Informative)
NEAR-Shoemaker "landed" on Eros perfectly fine. Likewise Hayabusa "landed" on Itokawa perfectly fine. Neither saw any sort of "avalanche".
Re:Empirical results differ (Score:3, Informative)
Eros is not a rubble pile. I hate quoting wikipedia, but "The asteroid 433 Eros, the primary destination of NEAR Shoemaker, was determined to be riven with cracks but otherwise solid. Other asteroids, possibly including Itokawa, have been found to be contact binaries, two major bodies touching, with or without rubble filling the boundary."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubble_pile [wikipedia.org]