Ep. 18, Page 74

smbhax on Nov. 21, 2012

I borrowed the pebbled appearance of the surface of this asteroid from 25143 Itokawa, a “rubble pile” asteroid visited by the Japanese probe Hayabusa in 2005–much more interesting to look at than the dusty and pock-marked surfaces of most asteroids we've seen, I think. More about this asteroid and its surface here, including links to Hayabusa's up-close photos of it (which I'm not including in-line here because eh the Japanese space agency JAXA's copyright terms are overly restrictive and confusing :p).