Free Republic

ST. LOUIS - Scientists said Monday they have begun slicing and dicing the first of hundreds of microscopic specks of comet dust, virtually unchanged since the birth of the solar system, that a NASA spacecraft successfully returned to Earth in late January. Preliminary analysis shows the dust, captured when the robotic Stardust spacecraft flew past the comet Wild 2 in January 2004, is unmistakably cometary in origin, said Don Brownlee, a University of Washington astronomer who is the principal scientist for the $212 million mission. As such, the grains represent pristine samples of the primitive material that came together to...

Scientists confirmed today that the Stardust sample return capsule that parachuted to Earth last weekend achieved a mission goal of catching comet and interstellar dust particles. It might also have brought back traces of water tossed off from a comet. "This exceeded all of our grandest expectations," said Donald Brownlee, the mission's principal investigator from the University of Washington. "We were totally overwhelmed," he said, noting that "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds" of particle tracks have been brought back. Stardust scientists and curation experts cracked open the Stardust sample return canister Tuesday in a cleanroom facility at NASA's Johnson Space...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A sample of comet dust, collected by a robotic space probe with what looks a bit like a big tennis racket, is scheduled to parachute down to Earth next month, NASA scientists said on Wednesday. The spaceship Stardust is coming to the end of its seven-year, 2.9 billion mile round-trip mission to fly by comet Wild 2, catching dust that could give astronomers clues about how the planets formed some 4.5 billion years ago. The ship will remain in space but a 101-pound (46 kilogram) capsule loaded with dust culled from the comet is expected to land...