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Sandcastles in space

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Analysis of a kilometre-sized, near-Earth asteroid shows that forces weaker than the weight of a penny can keep it from falling apart. This has implications for understanding the evolution of the Solar System. See Letter p.174

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Figure 1: Cohesive forces in regolith.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Daniel J. Scheeres is in the Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, The University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.,

    Daniel J. Scheeres

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  1. Daniel J. Scheeres
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Correspondence to Daniel J. Scheeres.

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Scheeres, D. Sandcastles in space. Nature 512, 139–140 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/512139a

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