Hayabusa Post-Landing & Science Results Options

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The capsule began its return to Japan a few moments ago as I write this. Seems like a good time to start a new topic for the much-anticipated final results of this epic mission.

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Pandaneko, don't be too distressed. In English-speaking countries at least, we're quite used to media confusion & inaccuracy in scientific matters. (This appears to be rather common in other non-English Western countries as well from what I gather).

It's therefore perhaps not too surprising that you may be seeing something similar in the mass Japanese media outlets concerning Hayabusa's findings.

Personally, I would have been surprised if the researchers had assumed that all exterior particles (within the reentry capsule but outside the sample container) were of terrestrial origin. After prolonged contact with Itokawa, it seems quite possible that a few dust particles from the asteroid might adhere to the capsule.

[pandaneko]

Personally, I would have been surprised if the researchers had assumed that all exterior particles (within the reentry capsule but outside the sample container) were of terrestrial origin. After prolonged contact with Itokawa, it seems quite possible that a few dust particles from the asteroid might adhere to the capsule.

I quite agree with you, actually. My gut feeling now is that all of the grains so far found are from Itokawa, because

1. Post-landing cleaning of the cannister, I cannot imagine that they did not do similar cleaning before launch.

2. The capsule came down by parachute. It must have been a gentle landing.

3. All newspaper reports so far say that all the sealings were found closed when the whole thing was brought into the curation room. How can Earth origin particles, no matter how small, could have got into the sealed system.

How exactly sealed, I do not know, of course. I had not even thought about the mechanism because I never thought it will come back.

4. I was not there to witness the landing on Itokawa, but from the CG I did see an extremely violent reverse shower due to retro firing and the escape velocity out there must be extremely small. On Earth, can you imagine 1 mm size particles, somehow, wiggling into the sealed system against gravity?

5. Can you also imagine that the team, when assembling the capsule, did not notice naked-eye visible grains on the outer surface of the inner tube? It is only a small tube, after all. And, you knew how small Itokawa grains could be when captured into the inner tube.

Pandaneko