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Japan's most powerful X-ray satellite is dead
JAXA has given up trying to rescue its doomed X-ray satellite. The Japanese space agency has announced that it's discontinuing Hitomi's operations. Previously known as Astro-H, the x-ray observatory was designed to study black holes, galaxy clusters and other high-energy phenomena. Unfortunately, it started tumbling and spinning through space shortly after launch, ultimately losing contact with its ground team. JAXA thought the $300 million spacecraft tried to re-establish contact, but in its announcement today, the agency revealed that the signals it received were from another source altogether.
Japan's most powerful X-ray satellite went incommunicado
Japan's space agency launched its latest X-ray satellite Hitomi in February, expecting it to keep an eye on the universe for at least three years. Sadly, its future is now uncertain. JAXA lost contact with the observatory (previously called Astro-H) this weekend, and it's still trying to find out what happened to its $270 million mission. Astronomers realized something was wrong when Hitomi failed to phone home for a routine check on Sunday, March 27th, 3:40AM Eastern time. The US Joint Space Operations Center reported afterward that it spotted five pieces of debris in Hitomi's location before JAXA was supposed to hear from the satellite.
