Don Brownlee
Don Brownlee
exciting mystery stay
This is a really exciting mystery story, so stay tuned.
easier entire parts
This is probably one of the easier parts of the entire mission.
came comet edge formed inner lifetime pluto recently sample solar spent system until
This comet formed at very edge of the solar system ... out by pluto ... and spent all its lifetime out there until recently it came into the inner part of the solar system, where we could sample it.
almost scientific secrets
Some scientific secrets will come out almost immediately.
analyze atomic people single
People all over world will be able to analyze them down to a single atomic scale.
history written
Our history is written at the submicron level, in these interstellar grains.
fire found remarkably samples solar
Remarkably enough, we have found fire and ice. We have found samples in the coldest part of the solar system.
almost billion grabbed incredible landed miles piece traveled visited
We traveled almost 3 billion miles in space. We visited a comet, grabbed a piece of it, and it landed here this morning. It's an incredible thrill.
believe comet mission older particles
Our mission is called Stardust, in part because we believe some of the particles in the comet will, in fact, be older than the sun.
brought close collected comet earth excellent fairly marks passed provided recent samples spacecraft time
In recent decades, spacecraft have passed fairly close to comets and provided us with excellent data. Stardust, however, marks the first time that we have ever collected samples from a comet and brought them back to Earth for study.
believe best beyond bodies collecting comet formed major mission planets preserved reason samples solar system
The fundamental reason for this mission is that we are collecting what we believe are the best preserved samples of the formation of our solar system and they are preserved because they formed these comet bodies beyond the major planets out beyond Neptune.
return risk simplest stardust
The capsule's return is probably the simplest of all the things Stardust has done and has the least risk. Nonetheless, it has to work.
imaging
The imaging was a bonus, but boy, what a bonus.
atoms attachment blocks bodies building carbon fact forth literally planetary rings solar stardust strong system
These are literally the building blocks of our planetary system. Personally, I feel a strong attachment to this thing and we should all feel a strong attachment to it because the fact is all the atoms in our bodies -- the carbon atoms and the oxygen, nitrogen, potassium and calcium and so forth -- all those atoms were in stardust rings ... before the solar system formed.