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."
It will be March 1st, 2006 before the first image is available for searching, but NASA seems confident that enough users will be into is and that they'll meet an Oct 1st, 2006 deadline.
You can pre-register here: http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/prereg.html