Stardust and comet dust

[mmcirvin]

The first look at the Stardust aerogel dust collector is promising:

The interstellar dust side of the collector also showed signs of two particles from Wild 2 that impacted with such force that they shot clean through the cometary side of the collector and into the interstellar dust side. [...] Each particle captured by the collector leaves a carrot-shaped tunnel in the collector, at the end of which can be found the particle itself. "It exceeds all expectations" said Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington, Principal Investigator of the Stardust mission, when the cometary side of the collector was revealed. "We can see lots of impacts -- there are big ones, there are small ones." One track, he added, was almost large enough to put a finger through. Overall, he said, "it's a huge success."

Comments

[oonh.livejournal.com]

I wonder if one of them is glowing, green, and crystalline.

[pootrootbeer.livejournal.com]

Did they find the Spiders from Mars?

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

Suh-weet!

Here's hoping we get renewed interest in more collection missions.