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.

4.6 billion?

[Eightyford]

...some 4.6 billion years ago.

Of course they really mean about 6000 years ago.

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: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

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.