Stardust
by Patrick L. Barry
and Dr. Tony Phillips
Philosophers have long
sought to "see a world in a grain of sand," as William Blake famously put
it. Now scientists are attempting to see the solar system in a grain of
dust-comet dust, that is.
If successful, NASA's Stardust probe will be the first ever to carry matter
from a comet back to Earth for examination by scientists. It would also be
the first time that any material has been deliberately returned to Earth
from beyond the orbit of the Moon.
And one wouldn't merely wax poetic to say that in those tiny grains of comet
dust, one could find clues to the origin of our world and perhaps to the
beginning of life itself.
Comets are like frozen time capsules from the time when our solar system
formed. Drifting in the cold outer solar system for billions of years, these
asteroid-sized "dirty snowballs" have undergone little change relative to
the more dynamic planets. Looking at comets is a bit like studying the bowl
of leftover batter to understand how a wedding cake came to be.
Indeed, evidence suggests that comets may have played a role in the
emergence of life on our planet. The steady bombardment of the young Earth
by icy comets over millions of years could have brought the water that made
our brown planet blue. And comets contain complex carbon compounds that
might be the building blocks for life.
Launched in 1999, Stardust will rendezvous with comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt"
after its Swiss discoverer) on January 2, 2004. As it passes through the
cloud of gas and dust escaping from the comet, Stardust will use a material
called aerogel to capture grains from the comet as they zip by at 13,000
mph. Aerogel is a foam-like solid so tenuous that it's hardly even there: 99
percent of its volume is just air. The ethereal lightness of aerogel
minimizes damage to the grains as they're caught.
Wild 2 orbited the sun beyond Jupiter until 1974, when it was nudged by
Jupiter's gravity into a Sun-approaching orbit-within reach of probes from
Earth. Since then the comet has passed by the Sun only five times, so its
ice and dust ought to be relatively unaltered by solar radiation. Some of
this pristine "stuff" will be onboard Stardust when it returns to Earth in
2006, little dusty clues to life's big mysteries.
To learn more about Stardust, see the mission website at
stardust.jpl.nasa.gov. Kids can play a fun trivia game about comets at
spaceplace.nasa.gov/stardust .
This
article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute
of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.