A sample container from Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft that returned from its seven year round-trip to asteroid Itokawa earlier this year reportedly does contain particles from the space rock.
According to several press reports, an analysis of some 1,500 particles found in the Hayabusa capsule — which landed in Woomera, South Australia outback in June — revealed that most of them originated from rocks on the asteroid Itokawa.
It is the first time that a specimen of material from an asteroid has been obtained, Japan’s Kyodo News has reported.
“This is really an amazing achievement for the Hayabusa team,” said Paul Abell, Lead Scientist for Planetary Small Bodies, Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science, at the NASA Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
“The Hayabusa mission was already a tremendous success, but having confirmed samples in hand is the extra bonus,” Abell added.
Abell was a member of the Hayabusa Joint Science Team and was in Australia in June as part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/NASA contingency ground recovery team in Woomera.
Tell tale signature
“The identification of extraterrestrial particles in the Hayabusa sample capsule is an astounding achievement,” said Professor Trevor Ireland from the Research School of Earth Sciences at The Australian National University in Canberra.
Ireland attended the capsule’s recovery in Woomera in June and was the only Australian scientist to be involved in the preliminary examination of the returned asteroid sample.
“While the particles are small, no more than the width of a human hair, they hold the tell tale signature of extraterrestrial material. The capsule contains the minerals olivine, pyroxene, plagioclase common enough on Earth but the compositions are very different to what we see on Earth,” Ireland said. These minerals are also common in chondrite meteorites, as is the mineral troilite (iron sulfide, FeS) which has also been identified.
“This latter mineral is not found on the surface of the Earth. As such, everything points to a successful sample return from Itokawa,” Ireland stated.
Ireland said that over the next few months to years, these particles will be further analyzed to see what they have to tell us about asteroids, meteorites, and the early solar system.
Abell’s and Ireland’s comments on the Hayabusa specimens were provided by the Australian Science Media Center.
By Leonard David