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Stardust Apparently Successful
Naomi_the_butterfly writes "The Stardust mission, a craft launched in February 1999, just concluded its encounter with comet Wild 2 at 11:40:35 am PST. The encounter went without a hitch, with about 72 images taken and comet coma (tail) dust collected! The first images will be downloaded to JPL over between 1:30 and 2:30 pm, in time for a press conference at 3:00 pm PST. Today a comet, tomorrow Mars!" Space.com has a picture taken by the spacecraft.
I got bored, googled the distance to be an average of 48 million miles. Converted 3e8 m/s to 671,080,888 mph (also used google. I love that site) and did the math to equal 4.29 minutes!
I'm amazed that you just happened to have that 5 minute number memorized. Do you think if we put a carbon fiber hood and an aluminum wing on light it would go even faster?
No, but I bet it would go faster if you gave it a Type-R sticker and an exhast the size of a cantalopue.
Tired of legitimate data sources? Try UNCYCLOPEDIA
You're forgetting one key fact-
There are no Martians on comets, so there was no one to shoot this one down.
Don't sweat the petty things. But do pet the sweaty things.