Stardust Mission
The Stardust Mission was a space exploration mission conducted by NASA aimed at collecting samples from the comet Wild 2 and interstellar dust particles. Here are some key details about the mission:
- Launch Date: February 7, 1999
- Primary Objective: To capture and return to Earth samples of comet dust and interstellar particles for analysis.
- Return Date: January 15, 2006
- Mission Extensions:
- Spacecraft: The Stardust spacecraft was designed with a sample return capsule and instruments for navigation and scientific observation.
- Sample Collection: The spacecraft used an innovative method to collect particles using a material called aerogel, which is extremely low-density and designed to capture particles without destroying them upon impact.
- Scientific Findings:
- Cometary samples revealed complex organic compounds, suggesting that comets might have seeded early Earth with prebiotic organic materials.
- Analysis indicated that the materials in Wild 2 were not uniformly mixed, suggesting that comets could be aggregates of material from various parts of the solar nebula.
- Notable Achievements:
- First spacecraft to return extraterrestrial material from outside the orbit of the Moon.
- First to collect samples of a comet and interstellar dust.
After its primary mission, Stardust was repurposed for additional observations, extending its scientific contribution beyond the initial comet sample return:
- Stardust-NExT allowed scientists to compare the comet Tempel 1 before and after the Deep Impact mission's impact.
Here are some external links for further reading:
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