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."

Comments

Sponsoring

[chriss]

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.

We are all made of stars

[saskboy]

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.

Re:We are all made of stars

[SpaceLifeForm]

Just hope there is no Andromeda Strain.

4.6 billion?

[Eightyford]

...some 4.6 billion years ago.

Of course they really mean about 6000 years ago.

Re:4.6 billion?

[Jeremi]

God is still here as well. Without faith you are blind to him.

God does indeed exist, as do all the other gods that have believers who think about them. Dieties are a type of meme, and as such are organisms just as real as any biological organism you could name. The difference is that while fish, lemurs, and humans are self-reproducing entities made up of collections of organic cells, memes are self-reproducing entities made up of human beings' collective thoughts and beliefs.

Like their organic counterparts, memes compete for resources (i.e. human attention), fight each other, interbreed, become extinct, adapt and evolve. It's even possible that they could be sentient, although since they are limited by the speed of their "neurons" [i.e. human communication], I suppose they must think and perceive very slowly (perhaps years or decades to complete a thought?).

Note that there isn't anything mystical or supernatural involved here: it's a simple application of functionalism: a clock made out of steel tells the time just as well as a clock made out of wood, (or water, or silicon), and likewise an organism that uses humans as "cells" and speech as its method of reproduction is also valid.

So while I'm rambling, I'd like to point out some of the adaptive features the "Christian God" meme has evolved to help make it so robust and evolutionarily successful in the modern environment:

1. Exclusivity. "Thou shalt have no other God before me". Like a sperm plug placed by a mating crab in the female to prevent competitor's sperm from gaining access later, this commandment ensures that competing dieties will find it very difficult to gain access to the believer's mind at a later date
2. Aggression: Variants of this meme often seek not only to snuff out remnants of competing memes in its own followers' minds, but will also direct followers to seek out and destroy competing memes whereever else they exist. This aggressive behaviour helps the meme keep competition to a minimum
3. Faith. By requiring the believer to reject critical thought and rely on faith alone, the God meme minimizes the risk of rejection by its hosts in response to countervailing evidence.
4. High communicability: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men". In its Evangelical forms, the Christian God meme can be highly contagious and can spread through new communities in relatively short periods. The meme often sends out runners across oceans and invades foreign ecosystems. By continually finding new niches in which to establish itself, the meme greatly decreases the likelihood of its being wiped out or marginalized by other memes.
5. Adaptability: Unlike less flexible memes that only flourish in their native culture, the Christian God meme has proven itself adaptable to many different conditions. For example, in capitalist nations, God takes on capitalist qualities... when the mood is war-like, God supports war. When peace is desired, God is for peace. Because the meme is so abstract, followers are able to easily integrate it into their existing mindsets, and this allows the meme to spread to the greatest number of people
6. Mimicry: The meme has learned how to mimic the qualities of other memes as a way to attract additional followers. Early Pagan and Roman rituals in particular were incorporated into Christianity for this purpose, and remain present there today.

So yes, God exists, and as a memetic organism it is doing quite well -- it's certainly in the top tier of "charismatic megafauna" of memes, along with Buddha, Allah, Technology, and Money. Congratulations on picking a winner!

But it will all be for not...

[Quaoar]

...when the lead scientist sneezes on it.

Re:But it will all be for not...

[JeffSh]

naught

Re:But it will all be for not...

[kzinti]

snaught.

There goes interstellar travel

[Joiseybill]

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.

Re:There goes interstellar travel

[hunterx11]

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.

Re:There goes interstellar travel

[MichaelSmith]

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

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.

Re:quarantine?

[SilentOne]

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.

Re:quarantine?

[Atzanteol]

NASA employee reading slashdot: Oh shit! I knew we forgot about something!

Go Nasa

[Ardeocalidus]

NASA really struck a cord with this one. Hopefully this success will relaunch (no pun intended) interest in the space program.

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:
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/webcam.html - NASA Webcam
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature= 1019 - Latest NASA News
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/multime dia/jsc2006e00886.html - When The Capsule First Returned
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/stardust-multimedia.c fm - Podcasts and Videos

Re:Go Nasa

[Ardeocalidus]

Update: The link to participate (soon) is http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/index.html

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

visible by human eye?

[phiber9]

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

In other news...

[uglylaughingman]

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?"

Re:$212 Million???

[Chowderbags]

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?

Over joyed? Could this be a Dave Chappelle skit?

[vertinox]

Nasa engineer: Hey anyone see the space dust?
Tyrone Biggums: Space dust? *sniffs* Uh... I don't know what you are talking about.

Re:$212 Million???

[nixdix]

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

Re:quarantine?

[John Miles]

They exposed it to UVA radiation in a hard vacuum for 4.5 billion years.