NASA ‘Stardust’ Spacecraft Collects Comet Dust Samples

Jan. 2–PASADENA, Calif.–NASA’s Stardust probe plowed through the tail of a comet this afternoon, collecting dust left over from the creation of the solar system.

Traveling 242 million miles from Earth, Stardust survived a cosmic sandblasting of sorts as it flew into Comet Wild-2′s coma — a cloud of debris and vapor pouring from the comet’s 3.3-mile-wide nucleus at more than six times the speed of a rifle bullet.

“The signal is still coming in,” said Don Yeomans, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., “and we’ve passed the closest approach point without any injury.”

Stardust used a tennis racket-shaped collection device to harvest dust particles from Wild-2 as it flew within 200 miles of the comet’s nucleus.

Both sides of the racket resemble a metal ice-cube tray. Inside each compartment is a material called aerogel, a porous, smoke-colored foam. As the spacecraft was peppered with comet debris, some of the particles were embedded in the foam. Stardust also took a series of photos and used onboard instruments to analyze Wild-2′s chemical makeup.

That dust could hold clues as to how our sun and planets formed.

Comets are dirty iceballs left over from the swirling nebula that evolved into our solar system. The objects — thousands of which travel through our part of the galaxy in long, looping orbits — also are thought to contain amino acids that are the building blocks of life. Because most of Wild-2′s life was spent in the distant, icy reaches of the solar system — far from the sun’s vaporizing warmth — the comet should still have most of its original material.

Launched almost five years ago from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the 16-foot spacecraft is scheduled to return the particles to Earth on Jan. 15, 2006. A capsule containing the collection device will be jettisoned from Stardust as the spacecraft approaches Earth. If all goes well, the capsule will land at the Air Force’s Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City. A recovery team will follow a radio beacon to retrieve the samples.

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