Latest 25143 Itokawa Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) next asteroid exploring spacecraft, Hayabusa 2, will be launching in 2014 on a mission to bring back sand from an asteroid. Hayabusa 2 will travel through space for four years before arriving at asteroid 1999 JU3, and will not be returning to Earth until 2020. Once the spacecraft reaches its target, it will fire off fingertip-sized bullets into the surface of the asteroid at about...

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The year was 1998. The Red Hot Chili Peppers had just parted ways with Dave Navarro. The world was introduced to Britney Spears. And the movie Armageddon bested all other films at the box office. It seems fitting that the same year that gave us Michael Bay’s fictional interpretation of how we should deal with an asteroid coming towards us would be the same year that the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Following the success of its Hayabusa mission, the Japanese space agency JAXA is shooting for another asteroid in 2018. Dennis Normille wrote in a report in Physics World that JAXA is planning to land another spacecraft on an asteroid in 2018 to search for clues as to how life on Earth began. Hayabusa 2 will be the sequel to its previous mission, which was the first to collect material from an asteroid and return it back to Earth...

  Japanese scientists have determined that the most common meteorites found on Earth are born from stony asteroids. The Earth-bound asteroids, also known as ordinary chondrites, are among the most primitive objects in the solar system.  The researchers said that the discovery means these asteroids have been recording a long and rich history of early solar system events. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Hayabusa spacecraft in 2003 to sample the surface of an...

Japan's space agency has found particles in the capsule of the Hayabusa space probe that may be extraterrestrial. The Yomiuri newspaper and Kyodo News agency reported that scientists discovered minute particles that may be from outside Earth. The newspaper said that their components have characteristics that differ from dust or aluminum powder samples that had been collected earlier. The Hayabusa space probe was sent off to an asteroid seven years ago, and returned on June 24 with samples...

The Japanese space agency (JAXA) said Monday that its Hayabusa space probe, which returned to Earth last month, collected "minute particles" of what it hopes is asteroid dust from the potato-shaped Itokawa asteroid. Scientists hope the samples could help reveal secrets about the origins of the solar system. "We have started the opening process of the sample container of Hayabusa since June 24, 2010 and confirmed there are minute particles," JAXA told the AFP news agency. The agency also said...

JAXA announced today that it has found traces of gas in a capsule thought to contain asteroid dust that was brought back to Earth after a multi-billion-mile space journey. Japan's space agency said that researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Sagamihara Campus in Kanagawa started to open the Hayabusa capsule -- a process expected to take about a week. They plan to analyze the inside of the container by using an optical microscope.  A JAXA spokeswoman said a trace of gas was...

Japan's Hayabusa asteroid space probe ended its multi-billion-mile journey when its capsule arrived back at a research center outside Tokyo. The Hayabusa probe, which burned up on re-entry on Sunday, released a capsule in Earth's atmosphere that landed safely in the desert. JAXA said the capsule arrived at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Sagamihara Campus in Kanagawa, west of Tokyo. "It has been seven years since I saw the capsule the last time. It looks like new," said the...

An official said Tuesday that Japan's space agency has applied for a Guinness World Records listing after its Hayabusa space probe returned from a seven-year journey to an ancient asteroid. The asteroid spacecraft left Earth in 2003 and returned late Sunday, completing a 3 billion mile round trip to the potato-shaped Itokawa asteroid. An official with the agency said that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, on Monday applied to the London-based Guinness World Records to list...

The Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft returned to Earth on Sunday, landing in the remote Australian outback. The spacecraft, which spent the last 7 years on a mission to explore an asteroid, reached the potato-shaped Itokawa asteroid two years after leaving Earth in 2003.  Its mission was to collect samples of the asteroid, which may hold clues to the origins of the solar system. The spacecraft burned up during re-entry of Earth's atmosphere, but it released a heatproof sample canister before...