Donald Brownlee
Donald Brownlee
Donald Eugene Brownleeis a professor of astronomy at the University of Washingtonand the principal investigator for NASA's Stardust mission. His primary research interests include astrobiology, comets, and cosmic dust. He was born in Las Vegas, Nevada...
comet expect fully older particles
We fully expect some of the comet particles to be older than the sun.
billion comet far library low picked records stored sun using
We?re using this comet as a library that picked up records and stored them far from the sun at very low temperatures for 4.5 billion years.
comet history people planet view
This was our first view of the comet dust. We are the first people in the history of the planet to see comet dust.
atoms billion bodies comet earth far four half library low picked records solar stardust sun system using virtually
Virtually all of the atoms in our bodies and in the Earth were in interstellar grains - stardust grains - before the solar system formed. We're using this comet as a library that picked up records of the formation of our solar system, and has been storing them far from the sun at very low temperatures for four and a half billion years.
comet full opened yesterday
We opened the capsule yesterday and it's just full of comet dust.
comet edge samples solar
It's thrilling. We have samples of a comet from the edge of the solar system.
samples universe
When you have the samples in hand, it's a whole different universe.
absolutely bad either exceeded fully happened none point remarkable space successful totally wildest wrong
At this point in time, we're absolutely thrilled. It's totally remarkable to have a fully successful mission. Of all the things that could go wrong either in space or even scientifically, none of the bad things happened and everything really exceeded our wildest expectations.
backward chance low
What was the chance someone would put a g-switch in backward and not be discovered, ... It has got to be a low probability event.
billion blocks building earth examine fantastic farthest formed solar soon system traveled
We're approaching the end of a fantastic voyage. This is the farthest anything from Earth has traveled and come back. Soon we'll be able to examine the building blocks that formed the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
huge lots small
It exceeds all expectations. It's a huge success. We can see lots of impacts. There are big ones, there are small ones.
huge
It exceeds all expectations. It's a huge success.
exceeded grandest larger million particles
It exceeded all of our grandest expectations. We should have more than 1 million particles larger than 1 micron in diameter.
extremely fire formed found high remarkably samples solar system
Remarkably enough, we have found fire and ice. We've found samples from the coldest part of the solar system that have mineral grains formed under extremely high temperatures.