NASA Sweeps Up

corleth writes "The BBC reports that a NASA spacecraft has begun its second phase of collecting interstellar dust grains to be returned to Earth in 2006 for analysis. In 2004, Stardust will rendezvous with comet Wild 2 to collect gas and dust. This will make it the first mission since the Apollo programme to collect and return materials from an extra-terrestrial body. The JPL press release can be found here." The Aerogel that they're using is nifty stuff.

Comments

ASININE!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Although it's a VERY low probability event, if that sample contained a living organism, or a pseudo-organism [like a prion], its introduction into our ecosystem could be the end of life as we know it.

This post is not a troll.