An amazing sight over central Australia. The Hayabusa space capsule entered Earth's atmosphere in a blaze of light. Most of the space craft burnt up but the delivery package descended by parachute - and made a soft landing near Woomera.
Hayabusa was launched by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ) seven years ago and travelled over four billion kilometres. It landed twice on the asteroid Itokawa - and collected dust samples - which it returned to earth.
No doubt that this is an amazing achievement, but hopefully the scientists in charge are aware that it is also poses a risk.
We know so little about space. It is quite possible that deadly pathogens exist - and that probes like Hayabusa may introduce them to this planet.
When the Europeans first landed in places like North America and Australia they brought with them diseases such as Measles and Influenza that had not been previously experienced by the native people.
The result was deadly ! Lacking any form of immunity, they died in their hundreds.
Let us hope the people handling Hayabusa have the good sense to treat this dust from an asteroid from the far reaches of space with care.
Otherwise - the result could be tragic !
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