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Collecting Stardust

Posted by michael on from the time-on-my-hands-dust-on-my-feet dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Washington University in St. Louis space scientists are reporting the first definitive laboratory dissection of an interstellar dust particle, thus pulling out each grain's history individually. When collected at high-altitude, the origin of six grains are from outside our solar system. 'Space' is full of dust, or ejected material from long-dead stars. In this case, 3 of the 6 dust grains are from red giant stars, and perhaps 2 are from supernovae. In the next 5 years, there are six missions targeting a rendezvous with either a comet or asteroid, including the Stardust mission to return the first extraterrestrial samples since Apollo. That only leaves 100 billion comets left to explore in our own solar system's Oort cloud." Update: 02/28 17:22 GMT by M : Fixed university name.

6 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Sad news... Wil Wheaton dead at 30 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I just heard some sad news on CNN - star of Star Trek: The Next Generation and open-source advocate Wil Wheaton was found dead in his California home this morning . There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him -- even if you didn't enjoy his television show, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.

    1. Re:Sad news... Wil Wheaton dead at 30 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Also dead today is the unstoppable BSD operating system. Its 30 users are mourning its sudden death. Please let's have a moment of silence to relfect upon its contributions to Windows.

  2. Is Wil Wheaton really dead?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    and who did He play on the show? Was he the bald French bastard? The Captain who was a Frog coward? Please let me know.

  3. Didn't he play the bald French Asshole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Why do English people have disgusting rotting blackish-yellow teeth?

  4. Does anyone besides me wipe standing up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    thats how i learned to do it....
    after i shit - i stand up and wipe my ass
    maybe thats just me..

    the king.

    AJFERGUSON.

  5. My origin theory: by maxbang · · Score: -1, Troll

    These dust grains came from your anus. That's right. Not Uranus. Your anus.

    --
    I also reply below your current threshold.