Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

First Images From the AnneFrank Flyby

Posted by chrisd on from the duck dept.

Cujo writes "The first images from the Stardust spacecraft's flyby of the asteroid AnneFrank can be see here among other places. It's been a while since we've had an asteroid flyby, although Deep Space 1 flew by Comet Borrelly about 13 months ago."

3 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. They messed up their experiment. by Trusty+Penfold · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The article says they used their dust collectors.

    Now, when it gets back to Earth, how will they know which particles came from AnneFrank and which came from Wild 2?

    1. Re:They messed up their experiment. by Trusty+Penfold · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It also says

      It turned out that we were approaching the asteroid's night side, and since all asteroids are different shapes, you can't definitively say which side will be light and which side will be dark.

      Erm, the side pointing towards the sun will be light, the other side will be dark.

      They do know where their probe is in relation to the Sun, don't they??

    2. Re:They messed up their experiment. by avalys · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Perhaps they can switch between different storage areas.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank.