Posted on 01/19/2006 1:04:37 PM PST by SmithL
HOUSTON -- Humanity got its first close-up look at particles from a comet this morning, as thrilled scientists unveiled images of the microscopic grains at a NASA press conference.
One image showed what appeared to be Pinocchio's nose -- a long, dark trail left by a particle as it rammed faster than a rifle bullet through a super-lightweight material designed to capture it inside the Stardust space capsule. The unevenly shaped particle, which resembled a badly burned piece of popcorn, sat at the end of the "nose."
Animated scientists unveiled this and other images of cometary particles at a NASA press conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston today.
"This exceeded all of our grandest expectations," said Stardust scientist Don Brownlee of the University of Washington. "We're absolutely thrilled." Considering all the things that can go wrong in spaceflight, he said, "it's totally remarkable to have a fully successful mission."
The seven-year Stardust mission ended Sunday, when the robotic space capsule plunged to Earth and landed by parachute in Utah. During its mission it flew by a comet, Wild 2.
Like a tennis player raising his racket, Stardust extended a waffle iron-like capturing device filled with a super-lightweight substance called aerogel. Cometary particles -- possibly millions of them -- flew into, and were trapped within, the aerogel.
Stardust also captured a far smaller number of particles of interstellar dust from the Milky Way outside our galaxy.
When NASA scientists gingerly opened the Stardust capsule at a lab in Houston on Tuesday, they "were totally overwhelmed" by what they saw, Brownlee told reporters at the press conference.
In the translucent capture material, "you could see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tracks" of particles that had rammed into the aerogel faster than rifle bullets, Brownlee said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Now, if it turns out to actually be a badly burned piece of popcorn, our theories of cosmology are going to need some serious modification.
I can get whole cans of Comet at any Wal-Wart......and it comes in gel, too!......
God was watching the NFL playoffs and burned the popcorn........
Astronomers suggest that the following images are "gravitational lenses." Bah! Materialistic claptrap by those refusing to acknowledge the Intelligent Designers! These are clearly the Beer Can Rings of The Gods!
cool science
"Now, if it turns out to actually be a badly burned piece of popcorn, our theories of cosmology are going to need some serious modification.
"
Seems unlikely.
There should be more results coming from the scientists once they recover from the mysterious illness that seems to have swept the lab in the hours after opening the capsule for inspection.
A cometary scientist is thrilled by a sample of Stardust cometary particles.
Indeed it does. But I couldn't resist.
Will is smell like wet ashes in a fireplace and/or spent gunpowder?
All joking aside, this mission is a fabulous success story of interplanetary exploration. Along with the successful launch today of the New Horizons probe heading to Pluto and the Mars rover missions, NASA is racking up some very impressive accomplishments in unmanned space exploration.
I think you like that star stuff.
Houston: An employee of the Houston lab is being questioned on the disappearance of the dust collected from outer space. When questioned, he replied he was only doing his job.
It has since been learned that the employee was the night cleaner.
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