Don Brownlee
Don Brownlee
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.
features incredible saw seen solar steep system
We saw incredible features -- steep cliffs, overhanging cliffs, spires and many other things we had never seen on other solar system bodies.
believe billion coming materials
We believe materials coming out of comets now is the same material that went into comets 4.5 billion years ago.
collected either form found high hottest normally red samples siberia solar white
We found the hottest samples in the coldest place. These are mineral grains that normally form under high temperature conditions. They were either red hot or white hot grains. Yet they were collected in the Siberia of the solar system.
collected grain
Every grain that we collected has a story to tell.
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.
fantastic quite
We are approaching the end of a quite fantastic voyage.
becomes crew far floating galaxy giant intrigued million names outlive people red silicon spacecraft sun
We have a crew onboard of over a million people -- their names are etched in a little silicon chip. As an astrobiology-type person, I'm intrigued by the thought that those names and that spacecraft will far outlive the Earth. When the Sun becomes a red giant and scorches the Earth, that spacecraft and those names will still be floating around the galaxy somewhere.
grabbed landed piece visited
We visited a comet, grabbed a piece of it, and landed here this morning. It was a real thrill.
actual believe billion blocks building collecting formed information particles solar stored system
We are collecting the actual building blocks the solar system was formed from 4.5 billion years ago. We believe that the particles have a lot of information stored in them.
mission science
Much of the science of this mission hasn't been done yet.
break concern major
One major concern was having it break open.
materials study
But the study of these materials will go on for decades.
earth easy fairly life planets
Life is fairly easy to create, but I think planets like Earth are going to be rare.