Stardust Probe Enters Comet's Tail Tomorrow

Tortured Potato writes "NASA's Stardust probe is about to pass through the tail of Comet Wild 2 at 11:40am PST, January 2nd. If all goes well, the probe will return the material to earth for research in 2006-- the first extraterrestrial material captured from outside the moon's orbit."

Comments

Comet Vapor?

[monkeyman_67156]

Not trying to troll, but what exactly is the point of sending a probe into the vapor trail of a comet?

FP

Re:Comet Vapor?

[CarbonRing]

This has never been done before. Any time we wander into the unknown, we are likely to be surprised and learn something unexpected. Historically, this has proven to be very productive.

In this case specifically, it's interesting because we're collecting information and material from a new type of solar system object, one of very few that are within easy reach. There are theories based on indirect observations which suggest what will be found. Comparing what is found to what was predicted will help to test and refine (or invalidate) those theories.

There are good reasons to believe that comets are leftover raw material from the formation of our solar system, objects which did not get gobbled up by larger objects and have spent most of their time since those early days orbiting out beyond Pluto's orbit. Then some chance encounter in the frigid boondocks of the outer solar system bent their orbit in toward the inner solar system.

So, the Stardust probe is hopefully collecting a sample of pre-solar system material that's been in deep freeze storage for 4 or 5 billion years. That material is believed to be composed at least partly of fragments blown off from stellar explosions even farther back in time. It is literally star dust. This is an opportunity to get our hands on material that may be the same stuff that the Hubble and other telescopes look at from across light-years of space, all without leaving the neighborhood.

No one knows what we'll find, but it's bound to be interesting, adding another piece to our understanding of the universe.

Re:Comet Vapor?

[kitzilla]

Because the going theory is that comets are the building blocks of our solar system. Many astronomers feel that the planets were formed as the dust ring accreted around the sun, developed into uncountable comets, and ran into each other in a long symphony of construction and destruction.

Those comets still on the prowl are essentially icy time capsules: calling cards of the solar system (and the galaxy's) early history. Having a look at a comet's raw materials will shed some interesting light on how we all got here.

Of course, if the theory that the solar system was built by comets is correct, you needn't look much further than your skin for a sample of ancient interstellar material.

Re:To those of you who say Nasa is a waste

[cubicledrone]

why spend billions on pursuing goals that don't do anybody a lot of real good, when we could spend it on helping humanity

Because hope is more valuable than the billions, and helps humanity immensely.

Re:To those of you who say Nasa is a waste

[Kaboom13]

While I don't completely agree with the parent, I do disagree with you. We can spend money constantly trying to inject money into it, but in the end it won't help anything. You get a temporary gain, but at the end of the day you will always have the poor and the uneducated and the underprivileged. It's unfortunate, but it's true. Space programs are kinda a high risk gamble, for relatively little cost. It's like buying a lottery ticket, you know the odds are against you, but you don't miss the $1 anyway, and you got a chance. Space exploration has the chance of forever changing the human condition for the better. As long as we sit on the earth we will slowly burn through it's natural resources whatever we do. The space program is a tiny speck in the federal budget, and most of the cost overruns have been caused by petty politics, not the program itself. A quick glance at google showed me the NASA budget is around 15 billion. The Federal budget is around 2-3 trillion dollars. What great change will another 15 billion do? A small increase in another federal system, and we lose a symbol of our nation, a motivation for technological improvement ( Virtually every product you use, somewhere along the line, was impacted by technology developed for or because of the space program), and hope for a better tommorow. You can throw dirt into a fast moving river forever, and never have it fill up, or start building a bridge. The real probelm with NASA is they have to constantly fight to get their meager budget and are at the mercy of the whims of congress. The politicians need to do their job and give NASA a goal, like Kennedy did, and but out. A smart man knows the areas that arent his strengths, and most politicians couldn't tell a space shuttle from a episode of star trek.

Re:Uh oh

[deglr6328]

Why would a pathogen from another planet (comet, moon, solar system, whatever) be harmful to us at all anyway. Viruses and bacteria that are infectious to humans have evolved alongside humans in order to exploit our susceptability to thier particualr specialized modes of infection, thereby increasing thier own survival. It seems to me that alien biologic agents, which hadn't the opportunity to evolve parasitism to Earth Life would look at humans in the same way a housefly would observe a sea cucumber. Inacessable and foreign inert material.

Re:To those of you who say Nasa is a waste

[KrispyKringle]

What great change will another 15 billion do?

``The World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN bodies estimate the cost of providing treatment and prevention services in developing countries for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria at $12 billion a year '' (The Black Vault).

I happen to agree with you, that we could cut other, far more expensive programs and do a lot more good. Cut corporate welfare, cut fat contracts to Halliburton (who has previously been convicted of embezzling millions in government funds), cut spending on weapons the military say they don't need simply because it gives money to some senator's constituents.

Hell, if we took the billions spent on ousting Saddam and spent them on providing humanitarian aid around the world (see how far it could go), I don't think there would be very many terrorists still out to get us, and I doubt they'd have nearly as much support.

So yeah. I think you're right about priorities. But saying we could cut other programs instead doesn't mean a thing. That money could be doing far more good--in terms of concrete improvements like health care and food as well as abstracts like literacy and education--than it does now.

And despite it all, I do like the space program.

Re:Uh oh

[LurkerXXX]

Very true.

On the other hand, it could be introducing a foreign plant/animal into an ecosystem. We've seen plenty of cases where that leads to rapid growth of the new species in a land with no natural preditors/competitors, and the eventual destruction of native wildlife.

Re:Uh oh

[surprise_audit]

OK, so what if life on Earth evolved from stuff that fell out of the sky? That's not so radical a proposition, either. There have been theories that recurrent illnesses such as flu could be caused by space-borne viruses/bacteria.

Re:Uh oh

[deglr6328]

I submit that it IS a radical proposition. I have heard the theory that the flu is caused by alien viruses and I think it is total bunk. The specificity of the influenza virus's surface hemagglutinin protein for binding to human cellular surface proteins (in order to gain entry to the cell and hijack it for virus replication) is so high, I cannot imgine it occuring by chance from some as yet unproven space borne virus(no viable extrateresstrial organism has ever been found in meteorites or dust that has fallen to earth, in fact the only POSSIBLE specimin of extraterestrial bacteria was found in a mars meteorite in fossilized form).