Hitomi, Japan’s most powerful X-ray satellite, which can spot objects 10 times fainter than its predecessor went incommunicado.

Hitomi, Japan’s X-ray satellite which it launched this February in hopes of being its eye in space for the next three years, has decided to not keep in touch with its home base. Its future is now somewhat uncertain.

This weekend, JAXA lost contact with the observatory, previously known as Astro-H, which is feverishly trying to find out what went wrong with its $270 million asset.

Hitomi was scheduled to phone home on March 27 at 3:40AM Eastern time, for a routine checkup. When it did not do so, astronomers realized that they have a problem at hand. In what could be a related development, the US Joint Space Operations Center has reported that it found five pieces of debris floating around in the location Hitomi was scheduled to be when JAXA was supposed to hear from the satellite.

In what could be a worst case scenario, astronomers are thinking that perhaps Hitomi disintegrated due to an explosion or a gas leak. JAXA has spotted small pieces of the observatory, which could possibly explain the explosion theory. However, as Jonathan McDowell , an astronomer, has tweeted, “‘Debris’ doesn’t mean Hitomi’s in little pieces. It means little pieces have come off it.”

There are chances that the satellite could still be intact. After the JSpOC spotted the floating debris, JAXA received short bursts signals from Hitomi. Japan’s space agency has now set up an emergency headquarters headed by Naoki Okumura, JAXA’s president, to get to a handle on this situation.

What is unfortunate is that Hitomi had been built to be Japan’s most powerful X-ray satellite to date. It was in the middle of prepping up its scientific instruments, a phase that was to last three months, after which it would set off on its mission, when it lost contact with base.

Its onboard scientific instruments, including spectrometers are significantly superior to its predecessor. In fact its onboard spectrometers can spot objects that are 10 times fainter than its earlier generation could. If everything goes back on track as JAXA hopes, Hitomi will scour the universe for high energy phenomena such as black holes, birth of stars and galaxy clusters.

 We are still trying to recover communication with “Hitomi”, and trying to find out the status and causes of this communication failure.

— JAXA Web (@JAXA_en) March 28, 2016

Although JSpOC reported that Hitomi separated into multiple pieces at May 26 0820UT, we received short signals from Hitomi after that time.

— JAXA Web (@JAXA_en) March 28, 2016