Success! Hayabusa Captured Asteroid Dust

Analysis by Ian O'Neill
Tue Nov 16, 2010 04:13 AM ET

In July, Japanese scientists announced that they had found something inside Hayabusa's 40cm-wide sample return capsule, but it was far from certain as to what that "something" was. Was it dusty contamination from reentry? Or was it precious asteroid dust, the very thing the sample return mission set out to capture?

Now we have an answer.

The trouble-plagued Hayabusa did return asteroid dust. In fact, 1,500 particles of the stuff have been recovered so far.

"This is a world first and it is a remarkable accomplishment that brought home material from a celestial body other than the moon," Yoshiaki Takagu, Japanese science and technology minister, told a press conference announcing mission success.

more

http://news.discovery.com/space/success-hayabusa-captured-asteroid-dust.html

Cool!

Thank you for posting the link. :)

Damn, that ninja is sneaky.

go to this link to see pic (tried to get his up as a pic, but can;t seem to make it work)

http://blogs.discovery.com/.a/6a00d8341bf67c53ef0133f5e4cd1f970b-pi