| Stardust | |
 Artist's conception of the Stardust spacecraft | |
| Organization | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
|---|---|
| Major contractors | Lockheed Martin |
| Mission type | Fly-by, sample collection |
| Satellite of | Sun |
| Orbital insertion date | January 2, 2004 |
| Launch date | February 7, 1999 21:04:15 UTC |
| Launch vehicle | Delta II booster |
| Mission duration | 7 years |
| NSSDC ID | 1999-003A |
| Webpage | Stardust homepage |
| Mass | 300 kg |
| Power | 330 W |
Stardust is an American interplanetary mission of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose primary purpose was to investigate the makeup of the comet Wild 2 and its coma. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA, ˈnæsə is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program A comet is a small Solar System body that orbits the Sun and when close enough to the Sun exhibits a visible coma (atmosphere or a tail — Comet 81P/Wild, also known as Wild 2, is a Comet named after Swiss astronomer Paul Wild (pronounced Vilt) who discovered it in 1978 In Astronomy, a coma (from the Latin word for "hair" is the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a Comet. It was launched on February 7, 1999 by NASA, travelled nearly 3 billion miles (5·109 km), and returned to Earth on January 15, 2006 to release a sample material capsule. Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA, ˈnæsə is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 Events 588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah 's reign Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. [1] It is the first sample return mission to collect cosmic dust and return the sample to Earth. A sample return mission is a Spacecraft mission with the goal of returning tangible samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 On July 3, 2007 a second mission was approved to revisit the comet Tempel 1. Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. 9P/Tempel, also known as Tempel 1 or 9P/Tempel 1, is a periodic Comet.
Contents |
Primary mission
NASA began construction of the Stardust space craft in 1996. After launch in 1999, the Stardust spacecraft travelled in an initial orbit beyond — but intersecting — Earth's orbit. The Delta II booster did not have enough energy to reach Wild 2 directly. The Stardust spacecraft then approached Earth in January 2001 for a gravity assist maneuver. In Orbital mechanics and Aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist or swing-by is the use of the relative movement and The encounter with Earth enlarged the spacecraft's orbit to intersect that of Wild 2.
On the second orbit, Stardust flew by the comet Wild 2 on January 2, 2004. Comet 81P/Wild, also known as Wild 2, is a Comet named after Swiss astronomer Paul Wild (pronounced Vilt) who discovered it in 1978 Events 366 - The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers invading the Roman Empire. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " [2] During the flyby it collected dust samples from the comet's coma and took detailed pictures of its icy nucleus. Comet dust refers to Cosmic dust that originates from a Comet. In Astronomy, a coma (from the Latin word for "hair" is the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a Comet. A comet is a small Solar System body that orbits the Sun and when close enough to the Sun exhibits a visible coma (atmosphere or a tail — Additionally, the spacecraft accomplished several other goals. A spacecraft is a Vehicle or machine designed for Spaceflight. It passed within 3300 km of the asteroid 5535 Annefrank on November 2, 2002 and took several photographs. Asteroids, sometimes called Minor planets or planetoids', are bodies—primarily of the inner Solar System —that are smaller than planets but 5535 Annefrank ( is an inner main belt Asteroid, and member of the Augusta family. Events 1570 - A Tidal wave in the North Sea devastates the coast from Holland to Jutland, killing more than 1000 See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. [3] The aerogel collector also acquired interstellar dust. Aerogel is a low-density solid-state material derived from Gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with gas In March-May 2000 and July-December 2002, the spacecraft angled itself into a dust stream believed to originate outside the solar system. The reverse side of the aerogel collector then caught a sample of such particles.
The sample material capsule from Stardust returned to Earth at approximately 10:10 UTC on January 15, 2006 in Utah's Great Salt Lake desert, near the U. EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001 Events 588 BC - Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah 's reign Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, to deliver the sample material. Dugway Proving Ground ( DPG) is a US Army facility located approximately 85 miles (140 km southwest of Salt Lake City Utah in southern Tooele County The landing coordinates were . [4] Winds had blown the capsule a few miles off its ballistic trajectory, but it was within the target area. On arrival, the capsule was travelling in a nearly flat trajectory, at 12. 9 km/s (28,900 miles per hour), which is the fastest re-entry speed into Earth's atmosphere ever achieved by a man-made object. As a point of comparison, NASA stated it would be able to travel from Salt Lake City, Utah to New York City, New York in less than six minutes. Salt Lake City is the Capital and the most populous city of the U The City of New York A large fire ball and sonic boom were observed in western Utah and eastern Nevada. The term sonic boom is commonly used to refer to the shocks caused by the Supersonic flight of an aircraft The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. Nevada ( is a state located in the western region of the United States of America.
The Stardust mothership had been put into a "divert maneuver" to keep the hardware from hitting Earth. Under twenty kilograms of fuel remain onboard after the maneuver. On January 29, the craft was put in hibernation mode with only its solar panels and receiver still active in a three-year heliocentric orbit that will return it to Earth's vicinity on January 14, 2009. Events 904 - Sergius III comes out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed Antipope Christopher. In Astronomy, heliocentrism is the theory that the Sun is at the center of the Solar System. Events 1129 - Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes. This article is about the year For the film see 2009 Lost Memories. [5]
Donald Brownlee, from the University of Washington, was the Principal Investigator for the Stardust mission. See Washington (disambiguation for other uses The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a public research University Ken Atkins of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed the project during development. Joe Vellinga was the Program Manager at the spacecraft contractor, Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin ( is a large multinational Aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology Company formed in 1995 by the merger of The Project Manager during Stardust operations and the current Project Manager for the NExT secondary mission is Tom Duxbury of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Secondary mission: exploration of Tempel 1 (NExT)
On 19 March 2006, Stardust scientists announced that they were considering the possibility of redirecting the spacecraft on a secondary mission to photograph Tempel 1, the comet that was impacted by the Deep Impact spacecraft in 2005. Events 1279 - A Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. 9P/Tempel, also known as Tempel 1 or 9P/Tempel 1, is a periodic Comet. Deep Impact is an ongoing NASA Space probe launched on 12 January 2005 that was designed to study the composition of the interior of the Comet Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. This possibility is important because Deep Impact did not succeed in capturing a good image of the crater formed on Tempel 1, due to obscuring dust from the impact.
In July 3, 2007, this extended mission was approved, under the designation of New Exploration of Tempel 1 (NExT). Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. This investigation will provide the first look at the changes to a comet nucleus produced after its close approach to the sun. NExT also will extend the mapping of Tempel 1, making it the most mapped comet nucleus to date. This mapping will help address the major questions of comet nucleus "geology" raised by images of areas where it appears material might have flowed like a liquid or powder. NExt is scheduled to fly by Tempel 1 on February 14, 2011. Events 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German 2011 ( MMXI) will be a Common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar.
The craft
The mission spacecraft is derived from the SpaceProbe deep space bus developed by Lockheed Martin Astronautics. Lockheed Martin ( is a large multinational Aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology Company formed in 1995 by the merger of This new lightweight spacecraft incorporates components, virtually all of which are either currently operating in space or are flight qualified and manifested to fly on upcoming missions. Several components have heritage from the Cassini mission; some were developed under the Small Spacecraft Technologies Initiative (SSTI). Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA / ESA / ASI Robotic spacecraft mission currently studying the planet Saturn and its
Being a sample return mission, Stardust is subject to the maximum contamination restrictions, classified under level 5 planetary protection. Planetary protection is the term used to describe a guiding principle in design of an Interplanetary mission that aims to prevent biological contamination of both the target However, the risk of interplanetary contamination by alien life was judged low,[6] for instance particle impacts at over 1000 miles per hour — even into aerogel — would destroy any known microorganism.
The total weight of the spacecraft, including the hydrazine propellant needed for deep space maneuvers, is 380 kilograms. Hydrazine is a Chemical compound with the formula N2H4 It has an Ammonia -like odor and is derived from the same industrial chemistry The overall length of the main bus is 1. 7 meters, about the size of a refrigerator or an average office desk. It appears orange-brown due to the blankets of Kapton film. Kapton ® is a Polyimide film developed by DuPont which can remain stable in a wide range of temperatures from -269 °C to +400 °C (4 K - 673 K
At one end of the spacecraft is the sample return capsule; the capsule contains the aerogel tray, and an arm to extend the tray. The opposite end of the spacecraft has the main dust shield, and the interface to the launch vehicle. Two sides of the spacecraft body hold solar arrays. Unlike most other missions, the silicon arrays do not articulate to track the sun after their initial deployment. The spacecraft is fairly passive and generates adequate power during the lengthy cruise portions of the mission. The encounter phase, when Stardust must orient the collector and dust shields at Wild 2 regardless of solar illumination, is relatively brief. Each array also has a dust shield. The remaining sides of the spacecraft contain the communications dish and scientific instruments.
Stardust runs VxWorks, an embedded operating system developed by Wind River Systems, on a RAD6000 32-bit processor. VxWorks is a real-time Operating system made and sold by Wind River Systems of Alameda, California, USA An embedded operating system is an Operating system for embedded computer systems. Wind River Systems Inc is a publicly owned company providing Embedded systems development tools for embedded systems Middleware, and other types of Software The RAD6000 radiation-hardened Single board computer, based on the IBM RISC Single Chip There are 128 megabytes for both program space and data collection.
Science payload
Aerogel sample collectors
Comet and interstellar particles are collected in ultra low density aerogel. Aerogel is a low-density solid-state material derived from Gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with gas More than 1,000 square centimeters of collection area is provided for each type of particle (cometary and interstellar). Comet dust refers to Cosmic dust that originates from a Comet. The collector tray contains ninety blocks of aerogel in a metal grid. The appearance of the grid has been likened to an ice cube tray; the round collector is about the size of a tennis racket.
When the spacecraft flew past the comet, the impact velocity of the particles in the coma as they were captured was 6100 metres per second, up to nine times the speed of a bullet fired from a rifle. In Astronomy, a coma (from the Latin word for "hair" is the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a Comet. To help compare different Orders of magnitude, the following list describes various Speed levels between 1 Although the captured particles were each smaller than a grain of sand, high-speed capture could have altered their shape and chemical composition — or vaporized them entirely. The pages linked in the right-hand column contain lists of volumes that are of the same order of magnitude (power of ten
To collect the particles without damaging them, a silicon-based solid with a porous, sponge-like structure is used in which 99. Silicon (ˈsɪlɪkən or /ˈsɪlɪkɒn/ silicium is the Chemical element that has the symbol Si and Atomic number 14 The sponges or poriferans (from Latin porus "pore" and ferre "to bear" are Animals 9 percent of the volume is empty space. Aerogel is 1,000 times less dense than glass, another silicon-based solid. Glass in the common sense refers to a Hard, Brittle, transparent Solid, such as that used for Windows many When a particle hits the aerogel, it buries itself in the material, creating a carrot-shaped track up to 200 times its own length, as it slows down and comes to a stop — like an airplane setting down on a runway and braking to reduce its speed gradually. Since aerogel is mostly transparent — a property earning it the nickname "solid smoke" or "blue smoke" — scientists will use these tracks to find the tiny particles.
The aerogel was packed in a Sample Return Capsule (SRC) which was released from the spacecraft just before reentry, for a separate landing on a parachute, while the rest of the spacecraft fired its engines, putting it into orbit around the sun.
While there was some concern about this landing, as the capsule shares a parachute design with Genesis, a solar probe whose parachute did not deploy properly in 2004 due to an assembly and integration error, the Utah landing saw the spacecraft arrive intact and within a minute of estimates. The Genesis spacecraft was the first ever attempt to collect a sample of Solar wind, and the first " Sample return mission " to return from beyond the "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again "
To analyse the aerogel for interstellar dust, about one million photographs will be taken, each one of a very small section of the gel. These will be distributed to home computer users who will be credited for any particles found, in a program called Stardust@home modeled after SETI@home and Mars Clickworkers. Grid computing is a form of Distributed computing whereby a "super and virtual computer" is composed of a cluster of networked loosely-coupled Stardust@home is a Citizen science project that encourages volunteers to search images for tiny Interstellar dust impacts SETI@home ("SETI at home" is a Distributed computing ( Grid computing) project using Internet -connected computers hosted by the Space ClickWorkers was a small NASA experimental Project that used public Volunteers (clickworkers for scientific tasks that require human perception and common
Comet and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA)
The CIDA instrument is a time-of-flight mass spectrometer that determines the composition of individual dust grains which collide with a silver impact plate. Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that identifies the chemical composition of a compound or sample based on the Mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles Silver (ˈsɪlvɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol " Ag " (argentum from the Ancient Greek: ἀργήντος - argēntos gen
The purpose of the Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) instrument on Stardust is to intercept and perform real-time compositional analysis of dust as it is encountered by the spacecraft for transmission back to Earth.
The CIDA separates ions' masses by comparing differences in their flight times. An ion is an Atom or Molecule which has lost or gained one or more Valence electrons giving it a positive or negative electrical charge Mass is a fundamental concept in Physics, roughly corresponding to the Intuitive idea of how much Matter there is in an object The operating principle of the instrument is the following: when a dust particle hits the target of the instrument, ions are extracted from it by the electrostatic grid. Depending on the polarity of the target positive or negative ions can be extracted. In Physics, polarity is a description of an attribute typically a binary attribute (one with two values or a Vector (a direction The extracted ions move through the instrument, are reflected in the reflector, and detected in the detector. Heavier ions take more time to travel through the instrument than lighter ones, so the flight times of the ions are then used to calculate their masses.
The CIDA is the same instrument design that flew on Giotto and two Vega program spacecraft where it obtained unique data on the chemical composition of individual particulates in Halley's coma. Giotto was a European Robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency, intended to fly by and study Halley's Comet. Vega program were a series of Venus missions which also took advantage of the appearance of Comet Halley in 1986 Halley's Comet, officially designated 1P/Halley and also referred to as Comet Halley after Edmond Halley, is a Comet that can be seen every It consists of an inlet, a target, an ion extractor, a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer (MS) and an ion detector.
The co-investigator in charge of the CIDA is Jochen Kissel of Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik in Garching bei München, Germany where the instrument was developed. The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics is a Max Planck Institute, located in Garching, near Munich, Germany. Also spelled " Garching bei Muenchen " (without "ü" Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Electronics hardware was built by von Hoerner & Sulger GmbH in Schwetzingen Germany. Schwetzingen is a German Town situated in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, around 10 km (6 miles southwest of Heidelberg and 15 km (9 miles southeast Software for the CIDA instrument is developed by The Finnish Meteorological Institute. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (Ilmatieteen laitos Meteorologiska institutet or simply FMI) is the Government agency responsible for gathering and reporting [7]
Navigation camera (NavCam)
The Navigation camera is used for targeting the flyby of the Wild 2 nucleus, but also provides high-resolution science images of the comet.
The Navigation Camera (NC), an engineering subsystem, was used to optically navigate the spacecraft upon approach to the comet. A camera is a device used to capture images either as still Photographs or as sequences of moving images ( Movies or Videos. A spacecraft is a Vehicle or machine designed for Spaceflight. A comet is a small Solar System body that orbits the Sun and when close enough to the Sun exhibits a visible coma (atmosphere or a tail — This allowed the spacecraft to achieve the proper flyby distance, near enough to the nucleus, to assure adequate dust collection. The nucleus is the solid central part of a Comet, popularly termed a dirty snowball. Dust is a general name for minute Solid particles with Diameters less than 500 micrometers. The camera also served as an imaging camera to collect scientific data. Debt AIDS Trade in Africa (or DATA) is a Multinational non-government organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2 's The data includes high-resolution color images of the comet's nucleus, on approach and on departure, and broadband images at various phase angles while nearby. These images were used to construct a 3-D map of the nucleus in order to better understand its origin, morphology, to search for mineralogical inhomogeneities on the nucleus, and potentially to supply information on the nucleus rotation state. 3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer The nucleus is the solid central part of a Comet, popularly termed a dirty snowball. The camera will provide images, taken through different filters, that gave information on the gas and dust coma during approach and departure phases of the mission. This page is about the physical properties of gas as a state of matter Dust is a general name for minute Solid particles with Diameters less than 500 micrometers. These images are providing information on gas composition, gas and dust dynamics, and jet phenomena (if they exist).
The camera peers out of a "periscope. " An initial fold mirror looks past the dust shield, and keeps the body of the camera out of the path of damaging dust particles. A scan mirror then gives the camera some panning capability, independent of the spacecraft orientation. This dual-mirror design also provides robustness. Upon approach to the nucleus, both mirrors are used to navigate and take images. Then, when the spacecraft is retreating from Wild 2, the camera looks "backward" by turning the scan mirror, bypassing the fold mirror. If comet dust has etched the fold mirror on approach, the mission can still take images with the clean scan mirror. Etching from Wild 2 did not appear to be severe; the spacecraft can still image future objects with either method.
Early in the mission, contamination threatened the camera's performance. Volatile substances from elsewhere on the spacecraft escaped in the vacuum of space ("outgassing"), and some redeposited on the camera, resulting in cloudy images. Outgassing (sometimes called offgassing, particularly when in reference to indoor Air quality is the slow release of a Gas that was trapped Although this did not impact the primary mission goal (the aerogel collectors), it would reduce the science return from Wild 2. Electric heaters, used to maintain the camera at a moderate temperature, were overdriven to "boil" off the contamination. The majority of deposits were eliminated, and test images were deemed acceptable. A similar problem appeared on the Cassini mission, with similar techniques and results. Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA / ESA / ASI Robotic spacecraft mission currently studying the planet Saturn and its
Dust shield and monitors
Whipple shield
The Whipple shield is designed to protect the spacecraft during its flyby of comet Wild 2. The Whipple shield, invented by Fred Whipple, is a type of Hypervelocity impact shield used to protect manned and unmanned spacecraft from collisions with It consists of three sections, two protecting the solar panels and one protecting the main spacecraft body. The first layer is made of composite panels. The panels are augmented by blankets of Nextel ceramic cloth. The shield is designed to protect Stardust from particles as large as 1 cm in diameter.
Dust Flux Monitors (DFM)
The DFM instrument, mounted on the front of the Whipple shield, monitors the flux and size distribution of particles in the environment.
Developed under the direction of Tony Tuzzalino at the University of Chicago, the DFMI is a highly sensitive instrument designed to detect particles as small as a few micrometres. The University of Chicago is a Private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. It is based on a very special polarized plastic (PVDF) that generates electrical pulses when impacted or penetrated by small high speed particles.
The Dust Flux Monitor Instrument (DFMI) consists of a Sensor Unit (SU), Electronics Box (EB), and the two acoustic sensors mounted to the Stardust spacecraft. The SU is mounted to the Whipple shield, and the EB is mounted internally to the spacecraft enclosure.
Sample processing
The samples returned by the spacecraft were flown by military transport from Utah to Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, Texas, then transferred by road to the Johnson Space Center in Webster, Texas. Ellington Field is a joint civil-military Airport located 15 miles (24 km) southeast of downtown Houston, within Harris County in The Lyndon B Johnson Space Flight Center ( "JSFC") is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 's center for Webster is a city in Harris County, Texas, United States. The population was 9083 at the 2000 census NASA officials said "prudence" dictated that the materials be transferred in secrecy, though the agency said they had received no specific security threats. According to the Houston Chronicle, the sample container was taken to a clean room facility which has "a cleanliness factor 100 times that of a hospital operating room to ensure the star and comet dust is not contaminated by earthly grime. The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily Newspaper in Texas, USA. A cleanroom is an environment typically used in Manufacturing or scientific research that has a low level of environmental Pollutants such as dust airborne "[8] Johnson Space Center is also the home of most of the moon rock samples brought back by the Apollo missions. Moon Rock is the debut Album by Paul Steel. It was cancelled for release after the album's first single Your Loss failed to chart upon
NASA made a preliminary estimation of a million microscopic specks of dust embedded in Stardust's aerogel collector. Microscopic is a term used to describe objects smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked Eye and which require a lens or Microscope to see Aerogel is a low-density solid-state material derived from Gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with gas There are about 10 particles of 100 micrometers in size. A micrometre ( American spelling: micrometer; symbol µm) is one millionth of a Metre, or equivalently one thousandth of a Millimetre The largest is around a millimeter. The Millimetre ( American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm) is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to Johnson Space Center is the curator of the samples collected, as well as the interstellar dust particles, while as many as 150 scientists worldwide are analyzing those samples. A scientist, in the broadest sense refers to any person that engages in a systematic activity to acquire Knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices
There is also an estimated 45 interstellar dust impacts on the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector (SIDC), which resides on the flip side of the cometary dust collector. The search for these grains is being done by a volunteer team through the distributed computing project called Stardust@Home. Distributed computing deals with Hardware and Software Systems containing more than one processing element or Storage element concurrent Stardust@home is a Citizen science project that encourages volunteers to search images for tiny Interstellar dust impacts
Sample analysis
Seven papers in Science magazine (December 2006) discuss details of the sample analysis. Science is the Academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is considered one of the world's most prestigious Scientific Among their findings are discoveries of a wide range of organic compounds, including two that contain biologically usable nitrogen. An organic compound is any member of a large class of Chemical compounds whose Molecules contain Carbon. Nitrogen (ˈnaɪtɹəʤɪn is a Chemical element that has the symbol N and Atomic number 7 and Atomic weight 14 Indigenous aliphatic hydrocarbons were found with longer chain lengths than those observed in the diffuse interstellar medium. In Organic chemistry, compounds composed of Carbon and Hydrogen are divided into two classes Aromatic compounds which contain Benzene rings The Stardust samples contain abundant amorphous silicates in addition to crystalline silicates such as olivine and pyroxene. For the Artificial intelligence Androids of the 1990s Science fiction series Space Above and Beyond, see Silicate (AI The Mineral olivine (when gem-quality also called Peridot) is a Magnesium Iron silicate with the formula ( Mg The pyroxenes are a group of important rock-forming Silicate minerals found in many Igneous and metamorphic rocks. The presence of crystalline silicates in Wild 2 is consistent with mixing of solar system and interstellar matter, something which had been deduced spectroscopically from previous astronomical observations. Spectroscopy was originally the study of the interaction between Radiation and Matter as a function of Wavelength (λ [9] No hydrous silicates or carbonate minerals were detected, which suggests a lack of aqueous processing of Wild 2 dust. Very few pure carbon (CHON) particles were found in the samples returned. CHON is an Mnemonic Acronym for the four most common elements in living organisms Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen However, the organic compounds methylamine and ethylamine derived from the comet were found in aerogel not associated with specific particles. Methylamine is the Chemical compound with a formula of CH3NH2 Ethylamine is a Chemical compound with the formula CH3CH2NH2 It has a strong Ammonia -like odor
See also
- Genesis
- Hayabusa
- List of unmanned spacecraft by program
- Robotic spacecraft
- Space exploration
- Space probe
- Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes
- Timeline of first orbital launches by country
- Timeline of planetary exploration
Notes and references
- ^ NASA Spacecraft Returns With Comet Samples After 2.9 Bln Miles. The Genesis spacecraft was the first ever attempt to collect a sample of Solar wind, and the first " Sample return mission " to return from beyond the is an Unmanned space mission led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from a small Near-Earth asteroid named Here is an incomplete list of all unmanned spacecraft categorized by program A robotic spacecraft is a Spacecraft with no humans on board that is usually under Telerobotic control History First orbital flights The first successful orbital launch was of the Soviet unmanned Sputnik A space probe is a scientific Space exploration mission in which a Robotic spacecraft leaves the Gravity well of Earth and approaches the This Timeline of artificial Satellites and Space probes includes unmanned spacecraft including technology demonstrators observatories lunar probes and interplanetary Wikipedia talkFeatured lists#Proposed_change_to_all_featured_lists for an explanation of this and other inclusion tags below -->This is a timeline of first orbital A timeline of Solar System exploration listed by date of Spacecraft launch bloomberg. com. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth
- ^ Spacecraft bringing comet dust back to Earth. cnn. com. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth
- ^ STARDUST. extrasolar-planets. com. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth
- ^ NASA's Comet Tale Draws to a Successful Close in Utah Desert. nasa. gov. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth
- ^ Stardust Put In Hibernation Mode. space. com. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth
- ^ Comets & The Question of Life. nasa. gov. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth
- ^ The Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer at Comet 81P/Wild 2. sciencemag. org. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth
- ^ Stardust's Cargo Comes to Houston under Veil of Secrecy. chron. com. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth
- ^ The building blocks of planets within the `terrestrial' region of protoplanetary disks. nottingham. ac. uk. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title Princeps iuventutis (head of the youth
External links
- Stardust Project web page
- NASA Stardust mission page
- Stardust Mission Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
- Stardust@Home project - Volunteers needed
- Catalogue of raw images taken by Stardust
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