Hayabusa (not to be confused with Hayabusa 2) returned to Earth after visiting the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa, June 13, 2010. Launched in 2003, it was the first spacecraft designed to land on an asteroid and then take off again.
Scientists at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) studied particles taken from Itokawa, most of which were about 10 micrometers in size. They determined that the grains were extraterrestrial in origin, meaning they resembled meteorites and asteroids, rather than known rocks from Earth.
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