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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."
If a 14-inch wide collector accumulated hundreds of humanly-visible samples in 195 days of travel - including at least one that caused a trace "large enough to put a small finger through", then any hope for high-speed space travel is really going to need excellent shielding. Statistically, it would seem very likely to encounter objects with sufficient mass to cause damage at high relative speeds. It might be interesting to see what a comparable flight through "clear space", and not near a comet would yield.
They washed their hands with a wetnap leftover from lunch at KFC?
Really, do you think that someone whos entire livework to this point has culmanated with the landing and retrival of this material is going to let the sample be contaminated? (Or contaminate the Earth)
I expect comments like this on Digg, not here.
I suspect people wondered the same thing about Antony van Leeuwenhoek. Why would anyone care about things too small to see? What a collosal waste of time. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/leeuwenhoek.h tml