Posted on 06/13/2010 7:51:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SYDNEY (AFP) – A capsule that scientists hope will contain a little slice of outer space after a seven-year journey across the solar system was sitting in the Australian Outback on Monday waiting to be recovered.
The pod, which was ejected from a Japanese space probe as it burned up in a spectacular meteor-like display over Australia, could hold the first piece of asteroid ever brought to Earth.
The heat-resistant pod parachuted into the Woomera military zone after being ejected from Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft as it flamed back into the planet's atmosphere late Sunday.
Australian National University scientist Trevor Ireland, who watched the spacecraft's reentry from the Outback town of Coober Pedy, said it looked like a meteor as it flashed orange across the night sky.
"It looked just like that in terms of fragmentation and pieces flying off it and glowing, it was just absolutely amazing," Ireland told AFP by telephone from Woomera.
Scientists from Japan's space agency JAXA said they have located the capsule, from which they hope to collect a sample of the Itokawa asteroid, following a helicopter search over the remote region.
"The plan is to pick it up today, package it up and get it over to Tokyo as quickly as possible," Ireland said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The capsule carried by the Hayabusa spacecraft burns up over South Australia on re-entry, leaving the heat-resistant pod to parachute back to land within the Woomera military zone. The Japanese space capsule which landed in the remote Australian Outback is set to be retrieved by scientists who are hoping it contains the first asteroid sample ever brought to earth.… Read more » (AFP/JAXA/--)
Flippin’ cool.
I hope they are careful, you never know what might be in there
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Sounds like a promo for a movie, or “heavens to Mergatroid”, a special for Jerry Rivers to ‘open’ it up on Prime Time..
Sounds more like “The Andromeda Strain”.
Missing Hikers Attacked by Alien from Meteorite
FFwd to around hte 2 minute mark.
Yah...I know...fake but funny.
prisoner6
It was a book and movie
A movie the scared the cr@p outta me, back in the day.
To get that scared today, I only have to listen to how the pols will ‘help’ me.
The movie was great. Scared the crap out of me too.
The only other folck that got me that sweaty was the first Alien flick.
Saw it at the Keesler AFB movie house - watta scream.
Seems a bit strange that they are allowed to let it enter without decontamination. You know the outside gets fried by heat but what about the contents. If the capsule breaks...could be trouble.
An image grab from video footage released by NASA shows a heat-resistant capsule (right) speeding towards Earth after being ejected from Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft (left). The Japanese space capsule that has travelled around the solar system as part of the first mission to land on an asteroid and return to Earth has been collected by scientists in the remote Australian Outback. (AFP/NASA/Nasa)
The successful re-entry of the Japanese space probe Hayabusa causing a bright streak in the night sky, is seen from Glendambo in the Australian outback June 13, 2010. REUTERS/Wakayama University Institute for Education on Space/Handout
The Japanese Hayabusa Sample Return Capsule (SRC) is seen at Woomera rocket range in the Australian outback in this June 14, 2010 handout photo. A Japanese space probe has landed in the Australian outback after a seven-year voyage to an asteroid, safely returning a capsule containing a unique sample of dust, Japanese mission controllers said on Monday. REUTERS/JAXA/Handout
If you find it don’t touch it, for it will unleash a plague on man such that we have never seen.
Hayabusa update: Capsule retrieved, heat shield found
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002548/
Oh now what's up with this?
It’s headed to Japan. They might have an empty can .. or.. ?
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