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What Killed Japan's Hitomi X-Ray Satellite?


What Killed Japan's Hitomi X-Ray Satellite? On February 17th, a new X-ray satellite observatory launched from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre. Named "Hitomi" meaning "Eye pupil" in Japanese, the observatory was set to explore the nature of super-massive black holes and even the origin of the mysterious dark matter. Five weeks after launch everything was going smoothly. Hitomi was making trial observations and transitioning from the highly supervised commissioning mode to regular operation. Just after 3:00 AM JST on Saturday March 26th, Hitomi performed its first maneuver without continual monitoring from Earth. Instead, scientists at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) waited for Hitomi to re-establish radio contact as its orbit swept over Japan’s ground stations in Spain and Australia.    More



(Source: Scientific American - Jun 17)

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