NASA photo by Dennis Olive. Spann noted that we tend to think of gravity as the only dominant force in the universe. Indeed, it holds solar systems and galaxies together, and makes leaving this planet an expensive undertaking. But other forces work at smaller scales. Astrophysicists start giving more attention to the smallest of astronomical bodies - dust particles.
New lab studies death of stars, origin of planets.
Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, home page at Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University. NEAR and asteroid information at National Space Science Data Center. Mars Global Surveyor home page has information and images of Phobos as well as Mars. The way small grains respond to electrostatic forces is different from our perceptions of billiard balls colliding. Asteroids and dust grains alike probably subject to the same surface charging effect that manmade satellites experience.