Confirmed: Hayabusa Nabbed Asteroid Particles!

[SkyViking]

Great news :D



Article: http://www.universetoday.com/78895/confirmed-hayabusa-nabbed-asteroid-particles/

[CraigS]

Hi Rolf;

Many thanks for the update.

I'm not particularly familiar with JAXA, but there doesn't seem to be any accompanying paper (in English) ..?.. Do they release scientific papers ?

This article basically re-iterates the same information they announced a few months ago, except this time we have an anonymous person's opinion that the particles are from the asteroid.

I was hoping for information about how they came to the extraterrestrial origin conclusion, the particles' composition, what formed them, discussion about the possible origin processes, what changes have they undergone since formation, do we find similar on Earth or are they different in some way, etc, etc ..

They seem to be very eager to make the claim that the probe was successful but I see no supporting scientific evidence about the particles' source.

Its a bit like trust me .. I'm the boss.

Thanks kindly for the update, much appreciated.
:)

(Thus far however, JAXA leaves me a little frustrated - perhaps its still too early for the info I'm looking for, and its just me ..).

Wiki seems to have a tiny bit more information … it says:


Cheers & Regards

[MikeyB]

There's a bit more detail (including names), here:

Japan probe collected particles from Itokawa asteroid (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11763484) (BBC News)

[CraigS]

Ahh .. thanks Michael;

Slightly more info ..

The second last statement is a big one ! Wiki Troilite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troilite) says:


Also, the BBC article starts out with:


So, does this mean that some of the grains found inside the canister are not extraterrrestrial ???

The message is still mixed up and its hard to understand just exactly what these guys are trying to communicate ! (Other than attempting to confirm a legendary status of Hayabusa).

To me, these announcements further undermine confidence in the whole project. (Perhaps I'm just too skeptical or something !)



Maybe that's the whole problem right there ..!… :question:
Cheers

[CraigS]

For the record, here's the translated JAXA release (http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/11/20101116_hayabusa_e.html#at01):

The table (in Attachment #1) (http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/11/img/20101116_hayabusa_1e.gif)contains the evidence they're basing their conclusions on.

They appear to have excluded Earth based origins on the basis outlined in the bullet point in the table.

Fair enough.

It took a while … but we got there in the end.

I still look forward to a paper on the subject, though .. what does it all mean ? I think they're going to use their 8GeV accelerator to smash a few particle up and find out the structure/composition ..
:)
Cheers