StarDust Captures Star Dust!

Posted 3 Jan 2004 at 23:54 UTC by The Swirling Brain

New Scientist.com says that the robotic space probe StarDust survives daring comet fly-by. StarDust flew through the tail of comet Wild-2 and was pelted with bullet fast rocks and survived! The Stardust mission in addition to catching minute partices of the coment in its aerogel tennis racket- like mitten, it also took some great photos of comet Wild-2. Now that Stardust has captured some comet particles, it is now on its long journey home with its payload to land in the Utah desert (yes, back to Earth) sometime in 2006. Hopefully, StarDust will survive the landing. Also, don't forget that tomorrow, hopefully, we'll find out of the Spirit Rover survived Mars!

More StarDust articles...

• 'Stardust' sweeps up space dust, snaps rare comet pics
• Close Encounter of a Cometary Kind -- STARDUST flies through Comet Wild 2
• Robot probes comet

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Humm.....Andromeda Strain Movie, posted 5 Jan 2004 at 21:13 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

This sort of reminds me of the Andromeda Strain Movie. I wonder if anyone had any secret experiments on board to see what happens to bacteria and such after several years in space? Do you think they'll secure this in a Biohazard enclosure room first before they open it?

As long as, posted 5 Jan 2004 at 21:27 UTC by blueeyedpop » (Master)

As long as Shelly Winters doesn't look at the flashing light, we should be ok...