That’s … really weird. It’s like some kind of cosmic Swiffer, using static
charge to grab any space debris that floats near…
Oh. I thought what we are looking at were the missing craters themselves. It seemed strange that a crater, which would be the absence of something I guess, would actually be found. I did read the information. Is this asteroid a strange shape? I thought everything in outer space was round. What is that smooth area on the left hand side of the photo?
Cynth, there is a link to a forum at the bottom of the page Discuss
The moderator will get a scientist to answer anything appropriate.
Cynth, most objects in our solar system have been impacted by many
other, smaller objects that are attracted by gravety. Here’s an example
of craters on a moon (not sure if it’s our moon):
You can see, it looks like something hit the moon hard, causing a
large impact crater. It’s not really a hole, but a distinct concavity.
The asteroid does not have any of these, which means that nothing
smaller has hit it, causing craters, which is odd.
Objects in space are only round if they are massive enough for their own gravity to compact them into a spherical shape. Some asteroids are large enough to do this, but most appear irregularly shaped.