Samples returned from asteroid Itokawa reveal history of violent impacts
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - 11:31
in Paleontology & Archaeology
(PhysOrg.com) -- In June of 2010, Japanese researchers launched a probe called Hayabusa into space on a mission to study the asteroid Itokawa (25143). It managed to collect dust specimens from the asteroids surface which were subsequently (for the first time ever) brought back to Earth when the probe parachuted into the Australian outback. Since that time, the specimens have been studied in every imaginable way resulting in several papers being published in several journals. Now, in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research team is reporting on its findings after placing several specimens under an electron microscope.