Asteroid dirt is 'fluffier' than we thought

The strength of gravity is different on every body in the solar system. Whether it's the crushing weight of Jupiter or the minuscule pull of a small asteroid, this fundamental force of physics still has a major impact on the material those bodies are made up of. A new paper from researchers at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) showcases just how different it can be by letting planetary simulants freefall inside a giant drop tower and measuring how "fluffy" the space dirt got. The findings are published on the arXiv preprint server.