There’s heightened excitement by officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Analysis of the tiny contents within the Hayabusa sample capsule that returned to Earth from asteroid Itokawa may indeed be minute particles of the visited space rock.
According to researchers, some 100 rocky particles have been detected, apparently diverse in composition.
Hayabusa made a seven year round-trip trek, with the spacecraft’s sample container parachuting down into Australia last June.
While JAXA officials remain cautiously optimistic, more analysis of the materials is needed. The extremely tiny bits will undergo further inspection at “SPring-8” – a large synchrotron radiation facility located in Harima Science Park City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
SPring-8 derives its name from Super Photon ring-8 GeV, with 8 GeV, or 8 giga electron volts, being the power output of the ring.
Given this power tool, scientists hope to determine whether micro-bits of the asteroid were captured by Hayabusa – or they represent Earthly contamination.
By Leonard David