A microparticle of comet dust embedded in a tiny wedge of silicon aerogel extracted from the NASA Stardust collectors that returned to Earth on January 15. For more: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/r...stardust.shtml
ST. LOUIS. Feb. 20, 2006 (AP). Scientists said Monday they have begun slicing and dicing the first of hundreds of microscopic specks of comet dust, virtually unchanged since the birth of the solar system, that a NASA spacecraft successfully returned to Earth in late January. Preliminary analysis shows the dust, captured when the robotic Stardust spacecraft flew past the comet Wild 2 in January 2004, is unmistakably cometary in origin, said Don Brownlee, a University of Washington astronomer who is the principal scientist for the $212 million mission... The first major science results from the Stardust mission are expected to be presented March 13-17 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference outside Houston.
Complete CBS report: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1330957.shtml
Brief audio clip ("click" to download).
An artist's rendering shows NASA's Stardust spacecraft closing in on Comet Wild 2. Credit: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/image...ature_103.html
Reprinted from Laramy-K Optical World News Forum
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