The image below shows Asteroid Itokawa. This image was taken by the Hayabusa spacecraft launched by Japan to better understand the composition of asteroids. In addition to taking images, the spacecraft determined the mass of the asteroid by measuring the attraction of the drifting Hayabusa spacecraft. Some of the composition of the asteroid were also studied with the debris from the impact of pellets fired from Hayabusa to Itokawa. The mysterious surface of the asteroid is astoundingly devoid of craters.One hypothesis to explain this oddity is that Itokawa is simply a floating mass of rock and ice chunks loosely held together by the weak gravitational force. If craters ever formed, the rocks and ice would merely settle in those places covering up the craters. Upon further research, astronomers discovered that one part of the interior of the asteroid Itokawa has a much higher average density than the other part.
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