Stardust (Includes NASA Ames collaboration)
03.28.07
NASA's Stardust spacecraft delivered the first pristine, solid samples from outside the Earth-moon system when a capsule containing the comet materials parachuted into Utah in January 2006.
The Stardust spacecraft was launched on Feb. 7, 1999, from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., aboard a Delta II rocket. The NASA probe flew through dust from Comet Wild 2 and captured specks of it in a very light, low-density substance called aerogel. The capsule – small enough to hug – landed in the Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City, on Jan. 15, 2006. During the capsule's high-speed reentry into Earth's atmosphere, NASA studied the capsule's heat shield material, which yielded information that could be useful for heat shield development for future missions to the moon and beyond.
After the preliminary examinations were complete, all the samples were transferred to NASA's curatorial office at NASA Johnson, where they will be made available to the general scientific community for more detailed study.
Overview:
NASA's Stardust spacecraft was launched on Feb. 7, 1999, from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., aboard a Delta II rocket.
In January 2004, the Stardust spacecraft flew through dust from Comet Wild 2 and captured specks of it in a very light, low-density substance called aerogel. Stardust's return capsule - small enough to hug – landed in the Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City, on Jan. 15, 2006, after a seven-year mission. The science canister with the comet and interstellar dust particles samples arrived at JSC on Jan. 17, 2006. From there, the cometary samples were processed and distributed to about 150 scientists worldwide who used a variety of techniques to determine the properties of the cometary grains.
Among many discoveries, one team of scientists found a new class of organics in comet dust captured from Comet Wild 2 in 2004 by the Stardust spacecraft. The discovery is described in the Dec. 15, 2006, issue of Science Express, the on-line edition of the journal Science, in a technical paper, "Organics Captured from Comet Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft."
The comet organics collected by the Stardust spacecraft are more 'primitive' than those seen in meteorites and may have formed by processes in nebulae, either in space clouds between the stars, or in the disk-shaped cloud of gas and dust from which our solar system formed, the study's authors found.
Stardust Media contacts:
John Bluck
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650-604-5026
Email: jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov
Bill Steigerwald
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Phone: 301-286-5017
Email: wsteiger@pop100.gsfc.nasa.gov
Bill Jeffs
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston
Phone: 281-483-5035
Email: wjeffs@ems.jsc.nasa.gov
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Phone: 818-393-9011
Email: agle@jpl.nasa.gov
| Key Mission People |
Scott Sandford, an astrophysicist and a Stardust co-investigator on the mission science team from NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., is also the lead author of the technical paper, "Organics Captured from Comet Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft," which appeared in the Dec. 15, 2006, issue of Science Express, the on-line edition of the journal Science.
In January 2004, the Stardust spacecraft flew within 147 miles (236 kilometers) of the comet Wild 2 (VILT-TWO) and survived the high-speed impact of millions of dust particles and small rocks up to nearly two-tenths of an inch (one-half centimeter) wide. With its tennis-racket-shaped collector extended, Stardust captured thousands of comet particles.
"It's a little bit like collecting BBs by shooting them into Styrofoam," Sandford said. "Some of the grains are likely to have exotic isotopic ratios that will give us an indication that we're looking at materials that aren't as old as the solar system, but are, in fact, older than the solar system," Sandford said.
To hear Sandford's audio interview, please visit:
+ Audio Interview
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Related links:
Stardust Feature
Stardust - NASA's Comet Sample Return Mission
Astrophysicist Scott Sandford Discusses Stardust Preliminary Findings (Segment 1 - Podcast and Transcript)
Astrophysicist Scott Sandford Discusses Stardust Preliminary Findings (Segment 2 - Podcast and Transcript)
