Topic: Hayabusa Sample Return Canister Opened, Contains Material

[sam]

The sample return canister from the Hayabusa spacecraft has been opened, and does contain a small amount of dust particles, according to the JAXA website. This is very encouraging news! However, it is not yet known if the dust is from the asteroid Itokawa, where Hayabusa briefly touched down, or if it could be from Earth — left in the container from before launch, or it possibly could have made its way in there during the landing/post landing handling. "Material on the planet or asteroid or particulate matter is at this stage is unknown, we will consider in detail," is the Google translate version of the JAXA press release. According to Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society, the dust grains are extremely small, about 0.01-millimeter in size, and there are about a dozen of them inside the container. This image was taken on June 28, 2010, and below is a magnified view of one of the particles.

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/07/06/hayabusa-sample-return-canister-opened-contains-material/

[Clive]

Let's hope it contains asteroid particles.   

[sam]

yeah if it turns out its got crap from Tesco in it no one will be impressed.

[Clive]