<p><br /> After a mammoth 4 billion-mile journey over seven years, a Japanese space probe has returned to Earth, landing in the Australian outback. On board it carried an unique cargo: a capsule containing a sample of dust from the asteroid Itokawa.<br /> </p><p><br /> The Hayabusa probe blazed a spectacular trail over Australia before slamming into the desert.<br /> </p><p><br /> Yoshiyuki Hasegawa a scientist at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has said: "The parachute deployment is a wonderful situation for us."<br /> </p><p><br /> Local Aboriginal elders and scientists flew to the site by helicopter to verify that no sacred sites had been damaged. A defence spokesman said the indigenous leaders had cleared the way for the capsule to be recovered.<br /> </p><p><br /> Hayabusa, which means falcon in Japanese, left Earth in 2003, landing on the irregularly shaped asteroid in 2005. and scientists think it managed to pick up a small sample of material.<br /> </p><p><br /> Scientists hope it could unlock secrets of the solar system's formation and shed light on the risk to Earth from asteroid impacts.<br /> </p><p><br /> Planetary scientist Trevor Ireland says the dust sample could reveal a "missing link" between asteroids and meteorites that fall to Earth.<br /> </p><p><br /> Analysis of the capsule's contents will be carried out in Japan and is expected to take at least six months.<br /> </p>
