Stardust
(CNN) -- NASA's Stardust space probe is racing toward Earth, carrying a tiny payload of cometary and interstellar dust -- particles that scientists believe are leftovers from the creation of our solar system.
If all goes as planned, Stardust will release the 100-lb. (45 kilogram)capsule carrying the samples at 1 a.m. ET on Sunday. It would enter Earth's atmosphere about four hours later and parachute to the ground in Utah at 5:12 a.m. ET.
If there is a delay, scientists will settle in and wait for Stardust to make another orbit around the sun -- a trip that would take about another four years.
Stardust has been in space for just shy of seven years and made three laps around the sun, traveling 2.88 billion miles (4.63 billion kilometers).
The highlight of the mission came on January 2, 2004, when Stardust flew within 149 miles (240 kilometers) of the comet Wild 2 (pronounced Vilt 2).
Stardust captured particles from the comet's tail in a tennis-racket sized collection unit made with blocks of aerogel, a strong, lightweight silica glass that is 99.8 percent air and looks like frozen smoke.
"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," said principal investigator Don Brownlee of the University of Washington.
If all goes as planned, Stardust will release the 100-lb. (45 kilogram)capsule carrying the samples at 1 a.m. ET on Sunday. It would enter Earth's atmosphere about four hours later and parachute to the ground in Utah at 5:12 a.m. ET.
If there is a delay, scientists will settle in and wait for Stardust to make another orbit around the sun -- a trip that would take about another four years.
Stardust has been in space for just shy of seven years and made three laps around the sun, traveling 2.88 billion miles (4.63 billion kilometers).
The highlight of the mission came on January 2, 2004, when Stardust flew within 149 miles (240 kilometers) of the comet Wild 2 (pronounced Vilt 2).
Stardust captured particles from the comet's tail in a tennis-racket sized collection unit made with blocks of aerogel, a strong, lightweight silica glass that is 99.8 percent air and looks like frozen smoke.
"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," said principal investigator Don Brownlee of the University of Washington.
posted by CW at 12:26 PM
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