Allow me to fix this @gizmodo.com headline: "Rare asteroid sample contaminated by microorganisms after exposure TO THE AIR". This team from London received an asteroid Ryugu grain from JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission 🛰️. There were no Earthy evils when they received it from JAXA then... they exposed it. 🧪😑 - ThreadSky

elizabethtasker.bsky.social • 118 days ago

Allow me to fix this @gizmodo.com headline: "Rare asteroid sample contaminated by microorganisms after exposure TO THE AIR". This team from London received an asteroid Ryugu grain from JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission 🛰️. There were no Earthy evils when they received it from JAXA then... they exposed it. 🧪😑

Comments

chondrule.bsky.social•117 days ago

Yes there has been a lot of ‘issues’ with accurate reference to and from this article. I had a long chat with Matt and it is a fascinating result!

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•117 days ago

The paper is interesting! But some of the coverage has been really problematic, questioning whether it is possible (or possible for JAXA) to keep samples pristine when actually there's not being questioned at all!

palomarskies.bsky.social•118 days ago

📌

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•117 days ago

JAXA Hayabusa2 cleanroom is crazy clean! It's a "class 1000", meaning that <1000 airborne ≥0.5 µm particles are permitted per cubic foot. The asteroid grains are in vacuum or nitrogen chambers. Regular paper sheds too much and the team must use tablets or special paper!
(📷: 🐦 https://tinyurl.com/4rahtmbm)

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•115 days ago

The official statement has been released: bad things happened to a good asteroid grain, but not on JAXA turf 🧪.
(And therefore, the asteroid Ryugu sample--aside from that one grain--that was returned by the Hayabusa2 mission is still free of contaminants from the Earth environment.)

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•115 days ago

If you were wondering what poor asteroid grain was the victim to exposure to the Earth's atmosphere, it was this cutie-pie: A0180. It's ~1.5mm long. The photo was taken at JAXA curation IN NITROGEN before the fateful journey to London. The catalogue is here: https://www.darts.isas.jaxa.jp/curation/hayabusa2/

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•115 days ago

Of course, we cannot get personally attached to each and every one of the 2247 asteroid grains currently listed in the Ryugu Sample Database catalogue. Buuuut I'd like you to know that this one says his name is "Noah".

selenahoy.bsky.social•115 days ago

Oooh that is an academic burn 🔥❤️‍🔥

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•115 days ago

Amusingly, one that has been noted by Japanese twitter but less strongly visible to people not familiar with Japan 😂

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•118 days ago

(Apologies for the re-post! I realised that it was not clear from my original skeet that this only applies to a single grain that was exposed to the air in a laboratory outside JAXA. Our curation team work ludicrously hard to keep our cleanrooms SUPER UNEARTHY so I HAZ FEELS.)

sugarinmysorrel.bsky.social•117 days ago

Venom

pk054.bsky.social•118 days ago

🤦

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•118 days ago

💯

selenahoy.bsky.social•115 days ago

Wooow it looks like the paper by London actually calls out by name which researcher first exposed the grain? (Natasha). Which is a choice. Bus, thrown. Will this have implications for any of these researchers?

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•115 days ago

Wow — I hadn’t noticed that. It’s very odd to include any names past the author list, especially first names. I wonder if this was an accident (another accident 🤦🏼‍♀️). The question of blame I imagine will rest on whether the process was agreed upon beforehand or a moment of carelessness.

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•115 days ago

Assuming the exposure was an accident, I personally feel the issue is more communication. I think JAXA should have been told, had a chance to review the paper (maybe adding location of exposure to the abstract to make it clear it doesn’t affect the main sample) and had time to prepare for media.

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•115 days ago

Sample return missions are a JAXA specialty, and our curation facilities are outstanding: a huge amount of work goes into keeping the environment pristine and the details all shared in journal publications. To have doubts cast over the Ryugu asteroid sample because of poor reporting is really sad.

veitja.bsky.social•115 days ago

They had one job...

xanindigo.bsky.social•115 days ago

“best efforts”

xanindigo.bsky.social•115 days ago

I should specify, not YOU you. I mean whoever it was in London. Oh, you know what I mean.

elizabethtasker.bsky.social•115 days ago

So far as I could glean from the paper, it was indeed... not thought through...

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply