From: Andrew Johnson
Date: 2014-03-09 13:08:35
Attachments : Somebody sent me this image today: www.newscientist.com… I found this in this article on New Scientist www.newscientist.com… The obvious Spherical object in the top left is very peculiar and I was quite amazed by it at first. Not just because of the size of it, but also that it had DISAPPEARED completely in later photographs! apod.nasa.gov/apod/a… apod.nasa.gov/apod/i… An obvious cover up or Photoshop job, right? Well, probably not… After some study, I am happy that the caption on the New Scientist page is probably correct: “Hayabusa successfully released its target marker, shown on its way towards the asteroid Itokawa (Image: JAXA)” As it turns out, the Hayabusa probe was a “sample and return mission” (see below) and carried 3 small, spherical sampler “pellets” to be fired at the asteroid. An artist’s impression of sampler sphere shown here: neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ima… neo.jpl.nasa.gov/mis…) So the original photo, which has now been posted on various forums and so on, is not as it appears to be. You can again see this in an NBC / Space.com posting from 2005: www.nbcnews.com/id/1… So it hasn’t been “covered up” as such. The fact there is no trace at all of this object (which appears to be stuck to the surface in the first photo) should be a big clue to the fact that it is actually one of the probes (it is also the right shape). Here is a posting in Japanese Japanese posting (use Google translate): www.astroarts.co.jp/… BBC story on the recovery of the sample capsule: www.bbc.co.uk/news/s… One interesting footnote is what they found in the samples Olivine – reading this blog shows the results were quite similar to those returned from Wild 2. sciencythoughts.blog… Here is a similar explanation of Hayabusa photo: ufologie.patrickgros…
