There's something that's keeping it from collapsing on itself.

183

When we planned our experiment, we estimated how long it would take for the dust to fall back onto the comet, and multiplied that estimate by 4. We only had a limited time to observe because this was all happening at relative speeds of 22,000 miles per hour. To our surprise, the dust never cleared!

154

Would we want to do the same thing to a different type of comet? I don't want to answer that question until we have analyzed the results from this comet. It depends on what picture we piece together from observing beneath this comet's surface.

142

I'm terribly excited. We're all jumping up and down. I'm pleased that NASA hasn't given up on science altogether.

141

Ceres is an embryonic planet, ... Gravitational perturbations from Jupiter billions of years ago prevented Ceres from accreting more material to become a full-fledged planet.

126

But it was too round.

45