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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."
The cigarette brand West sponsored the russian cosmonaut training center in the 90s.
When the Russians delivered the supply module for the ISS, the rocket carrying the module had a "Pizza hut" logo on the side.
When MIR dropped into the ocean, Taco Bell placed a 40*40 feet large floating target in the supposed drop zone and claimed free Taco Bell for all US citizens if parts of MIR hit the target.
Maybe Hoover could sponsor NASA expeditions.
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Did they pick up any of their space trash while they were out there?
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It's excellent that we'll have a chance to study this material close up. Metorites are valuable, but this Stardust material is even more precious, because it will give us a look at unformed planetary material that was not likely ever part of a planetary body. Some of the meteorites we've studied may have been part of a smashed planet, or mal-formed planet, but comet material could have very interesting molecular structures I predict.
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What steps has NASA taken to isolate the collected sample before analysis?
...some 4.6 billion years ago.
Of course they really mean about 6000 years ago.
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...when the lead scientist sneezes on it.
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
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."
I read TFA before posting. All it did was make me mad at baseball, too...
"This thing does science so hard, you say, 'I've never seen that much science.'" -Sam
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.
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.
Almost any organism not actually evolving with current Earth life would probably be killed, rather than killing. And, if it was in fact some pathogen that has left the Earth previously, it might be a bit more dangerous, but on the other hand, we could risk finding those in almost any geological survey.
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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A massive jello-like object was reported in downtown Houston today, reportedly devouring eveything in it's path and growing exponentially. When asked for comment, scientists at Nasa's Johnson Space Center had this to say:
"Hey, doesn't that look like that little booger-looking thing Johnson said he found in the Stardust Capsule?"
"What? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the constant beeping of my bullshit detector..."
Reminds me of the hilarious Simpsons quote:
News Reporter: "(reporting on a space launch) Unbelievable, and just imagine the logistics of weightlessness. And of course, this could have literally millions of applications here on Earth -- everything from watchmaking to watch repair."
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
I would sell NASA dust for $1 Million
Uncontaminated space dust from the tail of a comet? I think not. Even if you tried you wouldn't even be able to get a hold of that. And that is precisely why it cost Nasa $212 Million. The price is justified.
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There's a pyramid of knowledge, with maybe baseball at the bottom, and the Stardust mission somewhere at the top. The top of the pyramid can get surprisingly large funding, because the scientists that are pushing for research at the top have some of the most economically valuable skills.
Maybe you sit somewhere in the middle of the pyramid, with baseball too simple, and stardust too sophisticated for your interest. Don't worry, there's funding for the stuff you care about too. But if people with advanced skills say "let us do X because that interests us" please let them too.
The spacecraft flew with a 14-inch-wide collector that resembled a tennis racket and was filled with aerogel, a silicon material composed of 99.8 percent air.
As I recall, space is a pretty good vacuum. Why doesn't the air get sucked out of the gel, especially if the gel is exposed to the vacuum of space and even more so if it is periodically being hit by particles?
Ok, maybe there wouldn't be one big "whooosh", but seven years is a long exposure.
Any ideas?
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They were TRYING to collect samples. They flew it through the wake of a comet.
Don't judge the safety of space by a comet's wake, just like you shouldn't judge the calmness of the water while in the wake of a speedboat.
What could go wrong? Relax.
"Made up/misattributed quote that makes me look smart. I am on
Maybe, just maybe you could see that by learning more about what we came from, we might actually learn things? You know, it's part of that whole "science" thing that those ivory tower intellectuals keep talking about. I know that you may not like anything that doesn't give you a pretty picture or that doesn't beat those damn commies, but you know what, NASA is one of the few governmental agencies that does it's job well (aside from a few mishaps here and there, but then, that's common in government). I find it aggrivating how people want to keep cutting the budget for NASA, yet it gets less in a year than the War in Iraq gets in 3 months. Comon, people, NASA is what gets you your satalite TV, your cell phone service, your XM and Sirius radio, if it wants to actually go out and do some science beyond that, is it really that bad to toss it a few billion dollars to research our origins or explore the planets around us, what's so bad?
Nasa engineer: Hey anyone see the space dust?
Tyrone Biggums: Space dust? *sniffs* Uh... I don't know what you are talking about.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
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
$212 million for dust???
You say that now, just wait until the scientists find something in the dust that proves Intelligent Design. The flamewar would be immense.
"Scientists don't change their minds, they just die." -- Max Planck
With the success of Stardust, Spirit, Opportunity, and other missions, NASA and JPL are clearly demonstrating that robots are aptly suited for productive space research. Rather than invest in the huge infrastructure required to support our frailty, we should accept that humans are not equipped for interplanetary travel and actively pursue new and imaginative unmanned missions.
BTW, Great job Stardust team. Congratulations! I can't wait to get my invite to help out!
Stardust was an superb mission considering the nice samples and clear images of Wild2 (almost an afterthought). The related mission Genesis has been out of the news after its hard landing, but apparently many of the samples are in good shape, too.
an ill wind that blows no good
NASA != ESA.
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While this is a reasurring thought, nature really doesn't live up to it. Ecologists know all too well about the havoc invasive species can bring upon an existing, thriving ecosystem. One might say that it's very unlikely that any organism brought back to Earth would be suited to a terrestrial habitat, but we really have no way of knowing that. However, I also believe that the likelihood of us actually bringing anything back is pretty small. While it is probable that there is life somewhere else in the universe, I feel that it is unlikely that it originated close enough to us to actually get to it. Since the universe is estimated to be on the order of 10-15 billion years old (We'll just assume 15 billion for this discussion) we can not get information or materials from anything more than 15 billion light years away from us. Also, bringing the distance of contact is quite less than that considering that A)it is not likely that organisms were formed right away after the big bang, it would have taken a while for everything to settle out just right and B)There is no viable way to get an organism to move at anything approaching the speed of light. It would take infinite energy to get an object with any rest mass to acheive light speed, barring some shortcut that I am unaware of (such as spatial folding.)
But back to the point, I suppose it could possible that life did survive somewhere that was knocked off of Earth, or that life on Earth itself originated elsewhere and we are just a descendant of some other ecosystem and could possibly meet up with something else that evolved from that ecosystem. There would be the possibility of biological/ecological harm from mixing the two different ecosystems if a sample was brought to Earth.
And of course, if you were to come across another intelligent being then all bets would simply be off.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
Aren't comet's supposed to consist mostly of frozen water and gasses? Wouldn't most of that melt when exposed to earth temperatures?
I know they handle the sample in a very clean room, but shouldn't it also be very cold?
I've looked for mention of this in any of the articles, but haven't seen anything. So I'm probably misunderstanding something.
Even better than proof of intelligent design would be an actual fingerprint from the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
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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.
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