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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Science
Donna Lu

Space dust from 4.2bn-year-old asteroid could hold key to preventing cataclysmic collisions with Earth

the unmanned Hayabusa craft makes a flight to Itokawa
Scientists have been analysing samples of dust from Itokawa since Japan’s unmanned Hayabusa craft brought them back to Earth after collecting them in 2005. Photograph: JAXA/AAP

Tiny specks of dust from a “giant space cushion” almost as old as the solar system can provide new clues about how to avoid catastrophic asteroid collisions with Earth, research suggests.

Three tiny particles of dust – smaller than the diameter of a hair – collected from a 500-metre-long asteroid known as Itokawa show some of these space rocks are much older and tougher than previously thought.

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