ID :
150181
Wed, 11/17/2010 - 11:14
Auther :

Particles found in space probe container came from asteroid+

TOKYO, Nov. 16 Kyodo - Most of the particles found inside a container from Japan's Hayabusa unmanned space probe, which returned from the asteroid Itokawa in June, have been determined as originating from the asteroid, science minister Yoshiaki Takaki
said Tuesday.

It is the first time that a specimen of material from an asteroid has been
obtained, making Hayabusa's mission a success.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, which launched the probe in
May 2003, said an analysis of the 1,500 particles has found most were part of
rocks on the asteroid.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan praised the feat, saying it was ''great'' that Japan,
thanks to its technology, was the first country in the world to obtain such a
specimen.
''I share the happiness (with all those involved here),'' Kan told reporters in
the evening.
Professor Junichiro Kawaguchi, JAXA's manager of the Hayabusa space probe
project, told a news conference, ''Japanese scientists' efforts over a long
period have been rewarded.''
JAXA plans to examine the extraterrestrial particles further in cooperation
with scientists across the country, with the hope of shedding light on the
solar system's origin, as Itokawa is said to have maintained its form from the
time the solar system was created 4.6 billion years ago.
JAXA said most of the detected particles measure only one-100th to one-1,000th
of a millimeter. The particles' main components are minerals, such as olivine
and pyroxene.
Electronic microscope analyses have showed that the particles from Itokawa
contain many more iron elements than similar minerals on Earth, matching the
rock components on the surface of Itokawa observed by the space probe, the
scientists said.
These analyses led to the conclusion that the particles originated from the
asteroid, they said.
The scientists will continue collecting more particles from other compartments
of the capsule which have yet to be opened up, so that they can be sent to
universities and research institutions in Japan.
Hayabusa, meaning falcon in Japanese, landed on Itokawa twice in November 2005,
while surviving a series of technological problems that often threatened its
return and put it three years behind schedule.
The capsule released by Hayabusa was recovered June 14 in a desert near
Woomera, southern Australia.
Itokawa, orbiting Earth and Mars, was discovered in 1998 by a research team at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. It was named
after late Japanese rocket scientist Hideo Itokawa.
Takaki, minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, told a
news conference that he will make efforts to secure funds for developing
Hayabusa's successor spacecraft Hayabusa-2.
==Kyodo

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