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.
libraries records stored
The most interesting thing about comets is they are libraries with the stored records of our formation.
epic overlooked people quite tends
It's really quite an epic thing. I think it tends to get overlooked because it's just a little mission, and there aren't any people on board.
certain cold formed inside materials
It's certain such materials never formed inside this icy, cold body.
apart coming
It's coming apart under the heating of the sun.
billion cosmic edge formed solar system treasure
Its cargo was an ancient, cosmic treasure from the very edge of the solar system ? a treasure that formed when the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.
far unique wild
So far, as far as we know Wild 2 is a unique object.
finding materials minerals solar
The interesting thing is we are finding these high-temperature minerals in materials from the coldest place in the solar system.
comet expect fully older particles
We fully expect some of the comet particles to be older than the sun.
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.
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.
ended might standing
They always ended up with a rigid, crusty material. If you were standing on it you might go right through it.
ability jumping totally
That's why we were jumping up and down. We were totally overwhelmed by the ability to actually see this.
contain discussion lots minerals whether
Scientifically, that's great, because there's been lots of discussion of whether comets contain minerals or glass.