Spacecraft Returns With Comet Dust
CBC News
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After a seven-year mission, NASA's Stardust space probe has returned to Earth with comet dust that scientists hope will yield clues to the origins of the solar system.
The spacecraft touched down early Sunday morning on a remote stretch of desert in northwest Utah and was taken to a nearby army base. The capsule will be flown on Tuesday to the Johnson Space Center in Houston where scientists will study the tiny fragments of comet and interstellar dust.
The samples will then be distributed to the international science community for detailed analysis, said Lockheed Martin, the company that designed and built the craft. Most of the granules are so small that a microscope will be needed to study them. Scientists believe each is thinner than a strand of human hair.
Jan 15, 2006
CBC News
_______
After a seven-year mission, NASA's Stardust space probe has returned to Earth with comet dust that scientists hope will yield clues to the origins of the solar system.
The spacecraft touched down early Sunday morning on a remote stretch of desert in northwest Utah and was taken to a nearby army base. The capsule will be flown on Tuesday to the Johnson Space Center in Houston where scientists will study the tiny fragments of comet and interstellar dust.
The samples will then be distributed to the international science community for detailed analysis, said Lockheed Martin, the company that designed and built the craft. Most of the granules are so small that a microscope will be needed to study them. Scientists believe each is thinner than a strand of human hair.
Jan 15, 2006
