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NASA Overjoyed at Catch From Stardust
mknewman wrote to mention a New York Times report that the Stardust project has exceeded NASA scientist's expectations. From the article: "While they had expected mostly microscopic samples, the researchers said, a surprising number of the particles were large enough to be seen with the naked eye ... The cargo in the Stardust's sample container, which was opened Tuesday, 'was an ancient cosmic treasure from the very edge of the solar system,' Dr. Brownlee said. Scientists believe that these particles are the pristine remains of the material that formed the planets and other bodies some 4.6 billion years ago."
FTA: Dr. Brownlee said the $212 million cost of the 10-year Stardust project was a bargain considering the amount of knowledge it should provide about the origins of the solar system and Earth. "The way I like to look at it," he said with a laugh, "it's the same cost as a well-paid baseball player over a 10-year period."
NASA used the newer type of AeroGel to capture the dust particles. For those who don't know, AeroGel is an ultra-low density solid. The NASA AeroGel is an Alumina gel comprised of 99.8% air. The type that NASA used was Nickel-alumina, and they laced it with gadolinium and terbium so that space particles would cause the impact sight to glow under the correct conditions. (Some great photos of the foggy stuft at: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/photo/aerogel.html)
Apparently, NASA is considering allowing civilians to search for space particulates through the web, scowering over hundreds of thousands of enlarged photographs. Its expected that NASA will announce plans for the program soon.
Interesting links:= 1019 - Latest NASA Newse dia/jsc2006e00886.html - When The Capsule First Returnedc fm - Podcasts and Videos
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/webcam.html - NASA Webcam
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/multim
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/stardust-multimedia.
It is already known there that are enough stray particles in space that a craft moving at relativistic speeds would need a good deal of shielding against them. Somewhat counterintuitively, deep space has a higher density of particles than inside the solar system, since the pressure of the solar wind actually keeps particles from deep space at bay.
English is easier said than done.
ok. those are the large samples... if you want to help nasa (or nsa) compute the stardust microscope data (or echelon data) you can do that soon on Stardust@Home
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"Space junk" is stuff left over in Earth orbit from stuff we've put up there. Stardust didn't collect "space junk" particles, just cometary particles. The collector was only deployed when it went through the comet's coma. During the trip to the comet and back, the collector was stowed.
True, but this spacecraft was sent close to a comet. This environment, like the rings of saturn, is a well known hazardous environment. Normal deep space, as you would find during a cruise to mars or venus is totally empty by comparison.
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Thanks for your replies. Here's another link, same description as the above article, but instead of 99.8% air it states 99.8% empty space - I interpreted the "air" too literally (of course, most of an atom is empty space but anyway).
r aft/aerogel-index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/spacec
Awhile back I worked with a researcher who was looking at something similar - Metallic Foams. Cool stuff.
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Aerogel is actually not that useful for very much. It is an excellent thermal insulator, but is very fragile and prone to becoming powder if exposed to repeaded shock. *examines his small aerogel sample* Most of it is powder now, in fact - the worst kind, powdered silica.
I don't think it does, unless you go right down to less then 1K where pretty much everything is solid.
Think about Europa, which is at about 100K, and the ice there is more than 10km thick. There is hardly any elevation on Europa. Certainly nothing like mountains made of rock.
My expectation about the aerogel capture is that dusty material will be collected undamaged. The particles are expected to be a mixture of volatiles and rock anyway. The path in the aerogel should give investigators the total mass of the particle. Subtract the recovered mass and you have the mass of volatile material.
http://michaelsmith.id.au