The asteroid is thought to originate from the beginnings of the universe itself.
The Australian desert is used to dust, but the dust that will be landing in Australia today will be of an extraordinary nature.
A heatproof capsule is due to land in the Australia desert today and it will contain some of the oldest dust in the universe collected from an asteroid that is thought to be hundreds of millions of years old.
The tiny spacecraft set off from Japan in 2003 – its mission was to collect dust samples from an asteroid 300 million kilometres from earth in order to try and unravel some of the mysteries of the beginnings of the universe. However there was a malfunction when it landed and scientists are not sure what, if anything, it will have collected.
The asteroid is said to have broken away from an ancient celestial body that was formed during the early stages of the birth of the universe. As such it could provide invaluable information about the origins of the universe itself.
Now a team of scientists and astronomers are gathered together in the Australian desert anxiously awaiting the capsule’s, named Hayabusa, touchdown in what will end a remarkable journey of around three billion miles over seven years.
Skygazers should be able to witness the spectacular re-entry of the spacecraft into the earth’s atmosphere. Scientists say that it will glow brighter than Venus and will appear as a shooting star blazing a trail across the sky.
Australian aboriginal people will help to locate the capsule once it has landed where it will be taken to Tokyo where scientists will open it to see what precious cargo it contains.
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