A Japanese spacecraft has provided one of the best arguments yet in favor of a conception of asteroids pioneered over 30 years ago by scientists at PSI. The evidence comes in startling closeup pictures of the tiny asteroid 25143 Itokawa, photographed by the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft during a two-month encounter, September-December, 2005. The scientific results, recently highlighted in the June 2, 2006 issue of the journal Science, show images unlike any seen of other asteroids, which are mostly rounded and potato-like, dotted by craters, and with a few scattered boulders on the surface. Itokawa appears to be composed of massive splinter-like boulders protruding from a larger matrix of smaller fragments and dust. The largest bolders sticking out of the body appear to be some tens of meters across. The title of the lead article from the Hayabusa team, by Fujiwara and 21 other authors, including new PSI scientists Bob Gaskell and Hirdy Miyamoto, refers to "The Rubble-Pile Asteroid Itokawa." Image courtesy ISAS/JAXA Japanese space agency.