First reports: Hayabusa has gas

While normally having gas might not be construed as a good thing, scientists have begun opening the Hayabusa sample return capsule, and it had a trace (a whiff, a tinge) of gas in it.

Hayabusa asteroid capsule opening gets underway

Researchers said they had already detected a trace gas in the capsule but had yet to identify it.

"We still don't know exactly what kind of gas it is, but the researchers confirmed a trace of low-pressured gas in the capsule," a Jaxa official told AFP.


OK, I think it's a little funny. (I don't know if it smells a little funny, or not.) But more importantly, does it mean anything? I'm speculating that it does. Here's why:

Dust Found in Earth Sediment Traced to Breakup of the Asteroid Veritas 8.2 Million Years Ago

Quotandeum:

Because interplanetary dust particles are so small and rare in sediment-significantly less than a part per million-they are difficult to detect using direct measurements. However, these particles are extremely rich in helium 3, in comparison with terrestrial materials.

Mining the moon

More quotithon:

That realization would come 13 years later. In 1985, young engineers at the University of Wisconsin discovered that lunar soil contained significant quantities of a remarkable form of helium. Known as helium-3, it is a lightweight isotope of the familiar gas that fills birthday balloons.

Basically, asteroids, airless moons, and dust grains in the Solar System's empty reaches do the same thing; they collect helium-3 in the solar wind. So I'm guessing (and hoping) that Hayabusa knocked some helium-3 loose when it touched down on Itokawa. Whether or not that means some dust got knocked loose and into the sample chamber -- who knows. But this is promising.