Japan’s $273 Million ‘X-ray’ Satellite Veers Off Its Orbit – Feared Lost In Outer Space: Report

Space scientists around the world are reportedly trying to track Japan’s “Hitomi” satellite after it disappeared mysteriously in space after losing contact with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency- JAXA on March 26.

The $273 million astronomical satellite, launched into operation last month, was tasked with providing fresh insights into the many facets of the high-energy universe, such as the properties of black holes, the origin of chemical elements, distant galaxy-clusters, violently exploding stars, as well as the mysteries of matter lurking in the dark depths of space.

According to reports, the satellite is said to have communicated briefly with ground crews before going silent, following which no signals were transmitted, prompting space experts to speculate whether it may have partially disintegrated as a result of an unexplained collision.

According to astronomer Jonathan McDowell from of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, it cannot be established with certainty whether the Hitomi came in direct contact with space debris, namely an asteroid, or experienced some kind of an internal anomaly that may have led to some of the parts getting knocked off as a consequence. The U.S. Joint Space Operations Center confirmed it had spotted five objects floating near the location of the satellite the following day.

According to Saku Tsuneta, director of the JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the fate of the entire mission rests on the recovery of the satellite.

“It is a seriously critical situation, and the success of the mission will be very bleak if the probe does not recover its functions. We will make an all-out effort to recover the satellite.”

Hitomi had been designed as a landmark X-ray observatory equipped with a state of the art soft x-ray spectrometer believed to provide 30 times the resolution of formerly employed instruments. A pioneering telescope, it was designed to capture unprecedented imagery of a highly hostile cosmos with its hot and fuming galaxy clusters, high-energy emissions from obscure black holes, dark energy and matter, as well as remnants of stars lurking around massive stellar explosions.

Roger Blandford from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) expounded on the new-age merits of the satellite’s design following its launch back in February.

“The launch of Hitomi represents the beginning of a new era for X-ray observatories. Its novel instruments will allow us to make new discoveries involving dark matter, dark energy, black holes and neutron stars.”

Japan has a vast space program and has achieved phenomenal successes in both scientific and commercial satellite launches. It has already sent several astronauts on space shuttle and International Space Station missions. The Japan Aerospace exploration Agency-JAXA, Japan’s national aero-space agency, was inaugurated in 2003 through the merger of three different establishments, subsequently going on to becoming a National Research and Development Agency in April of last year.

Earlier this month, JAXA released fascinating images of the solar eclipse captured from one of its solar observation satellites orbiting the earth. The satellite Hinode is a different JAXA mission working in collaboration with U.S. and UK experts, and attempting to survey the magnetic fields of the sun.

X-rays are a highly energetic form of light produced by matter under extremely formidable and hostile environments. Observations of cosmic X-ray sources provide astrophysicists with the opportunity to identify and study these extreme conditions. In February, JAXA confirmed the completion of a sequence of important operations of the satellite including activation of the cooling system, test-operating the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS), and extending the Extensible Optical Bench (EOB).

According to a recent JAXA update, communication with the X-ray Astronomy Satellite had failed from the onset of its operation following the launch on February 17. Up until now, JAXA has not been able to determine the present condition of the satellite. It further added that loss of communication was being investigated amid JAXA’s continued attempts to recover the satellite still believed to be hovering in the distance, somewhere high above the earth.

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