TOKYO (AFP) -
Dozens
of space scientists are desperately scouring the skies after losing
track of a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar Japanese satellite that was sent
to study black holes.
The ultra-high-tech "Hitomi" -- or eye --
satellite was supposed to be busy communicating from orbit by now, the
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said, but no one can say
exactly where it is.
The device briefly made contact with ground
crews but has since disappeared, with American researchers reporting
that it could have broken into several pieces.
"We're taking the
situation seriously," Saku Tsuneta, director of the agency's Institute
of Space and Astronautical Science, told a news conference on Sunday.
JAXA
has around 40 technicians on the case, trying to locate the spacecraft
and establish some kind of communication with it, an agency spokesman
told AFP on Monday.
"We know approximately where it is," the spokesman added, but scientists were still trying to work out its precise location.
The
satellite, developed in collaboration with NASA, the US space agency,
and various other groups, was launched on February 17 and was designed
to observe X-rays emanating from black holes and galaxy clusters.
Black
holes have never been directly observed, but scientists believe they
are huge collapsed stars whose enormous gravitational pull is so strong
that nothing can escape.
The announcement last month that
gravitational waves had been detected for the first time added to
evidence of their existence after scientists found the waves had been
caused by two enormous black holes colliding.
The lost satellite,
which cost 31 billion yen ($273 million), including the cost of
launching it, was supposed to orbit at an altitude of about 580
kilometres (360 miles).
The Japanese rocket carrying the
satellite was launched by the country's mainstay H-IIA rocket from the
Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.
Japan has a massive
space programme and the country has achieved successes in both
scientific and commercial satellite launches. It has sent astronauts on
space shuttle and International Space Station missions.
© 2016 AFP
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