Don Brownlee

Don Brownlee
formed hot major planets pluto regions solar sun system thrown
There are two major possibilities. One that they formed in the innermost, hotter-most regions of our solar system when the sun and planets were forming, and they were thrown out -- all the way out to the Pluto region of the solar system. The other possibility is they were formed around other stars, in hot regions around other stars.
earth easy fairly life planets
Life is fairly easy to create, but I think planets like Earth are going to be rare.
ability comet dust history jumping people planet quickly totally
We were jumping up and down ? we were totally overwhelmed by the ability to see this so quickly and so straightforwardly. We were the first people in the history of the planet to see comet dust in hand.
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.
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.
atoms blocks bodies building carbon comet coming forth literally planetary solar stardust system
These are literally the building blocks of our planetary system. All of the atoms in our bodies - the carbon atoms, the oxygen, the nitrogen, potassium, calcium and so forth - all of those atoms were in stardust grains like those coming out of the comet now before the solar system formed.
blocks building literally planetary
These are literally the building blocks of our planetary system.
blocks bringing building collecting edge history original planets solar
This is a history project. We are going to the edge of the solar system, collecting the original building blocks of the planets and bringing them back to our labs.
bright people quite sure
We weren't quite sure how bright it was going to be and some people didn't think we would see anything.
backyard bringing collected comet course dust lands material particle per primitive square tons year
Each year we have 30 to 40,000 tons of primitive material from comets and asteroids that lands on Earth, and this is about one particle per square meter per day. So during the course of our seven-year mission, there was more comet dust collected in your backyard than what we're bringing home.
angle appeared five half jumping lasted maybe minutes noticed ran red saw supposed tail yelling
Five minutes before it was supposed to come in, we ran outside. I saw this red thing that, at first, I thought was Mars. Then I noticed it was moving, from our angle it appeared to be climbing. Pretty soon, it had this glowing, reddish tail that lasted maybe half a minute. ... We were all yelling and jumping up and down.
collected grain
Every grain that we collected has a story to tell.
fantastic quite
We are approaching the end of a quite fantastic voyage.
Well, we'll see. But we do have some interesting stuff.