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REAL LIFE NEWS: ASTEROID SAMPLE DUE TO ARRIVE ON EARTH TONIGHT

by Hazed

By the time you read this, a spacecraft should have returned to Earth, bringing with it a chunk of the asteroid it was sent to examine - and as I write, scientists are eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Astronomers from NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other organizations are heading to Australia to study the spacecraft Hayabusa's fiery descent through the Earth's atmosphere. This will be the end of the spacecraft's seven-year voyage to the asteroid Itokawa and back. Earlier this week, JAXA announced that the guidance of the craft had been completed successfully, so that it will land in the Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia at midnight locally - that's 7.00am PDT.

"Hayabusa is hurtling toward Earth at an immense speed, comparable to that of an asteroid impact," said Peter Jenniskens, the observation campaign's principal investigator and a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and the SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif. "The capsule that protects the asteroid sample will be only 6,500 feet ahead of the rest of the spacecraft, which will break into numerous pieces, essentially making it a man-made meteor."

This gives the scientists a vital opportunity to study conditions on reentry.

You can read more about Hayabusa's return here.

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