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...
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.
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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 expect fully older particles
We fully expect some of the comet particles to be older than the sun.
comet edge samples solar
It's thrilling. We have samples of a comet from the edge of the solar system.
comet full opened yesterday
We opened the capsule yesterday and it's just full of comet dust.
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This was our first view of the comet dust. We are the first people in the history of the planet to see comet dust.
ended might standing
They always ended up with a rigid, crusty material. If you were standing on it you might go right through it.
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Scientifically, that's great, because there's been lots of discussion of whether comets contain minerals or glass.
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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.
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It exceeds all expectations. It's a huge success. We can see lots of impacts. There are big ones, there are small ones.
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It exceeds all expectations. It's a huge success.
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It exceeded all of our grandest expectations. We should have more than 1 million particles larger than 1 micron in diameter.
formed solar
We can tell the difference, absolutely, for something that formed in our own solar system, and something that formed around another star.
feet lots small
We can see lots of impacts. There are big ones, there are small ones. The big ones you can see from 10 feet away.