Tiny pieces of rock the
size of 50-100 microns - thinner than a human hair - were taken from the
asteroid Itokawa Japanese Hayabusa mission. They were carefully extracted by
experts from the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences,
University of Manchester.
This case was the
first, when the samples collected on the asteroid were returned to Earth. Only
70 samples were provided for international analysis, and seven of them - to
study at this university.
