NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Aerogel For STARDUST

On February 7th, this honey comb [ http://stardust.jpl…] of aluminum cells filled with aerogel [ http://www.Aerogels…] was launched on the STARDUST [ http://stardust.jpl…] mission to interplanetary space. STARDUST's goal is to capture dust from a comet's tail and return to planet Earth - the first sample return [ http://stardust.jpl…] mission to a comet [ http://encke.jpl.na…]! This structure represents about 1,000 square centimeters of area for collecting dust trailing within 150 kilometers of the nucleus of P/Wild-2 [ http://stardust.jpl…]. Comet P/Wild-2 is new to the inner Solar System. Having spent its life in orbit between Jupiter and Uranus, this comet was deflected in 1974 by a close encounter with Jupiter [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and now orbits between Jupiter and Earth. Dust from P/Wild-2 should impact the aerogel at high speeds and come to rest leaving carrot-shaped [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] tracks in this amazingly tough, transparent, ultra-low density [ http://stardust.jpl…] material. Returning to Earth by parachute in 2006, the cometary dust sample will be analyzed for clues to [ http://stardust.jpl…] the formation and primordial composition of our Solar System.

Courtesy NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov]/ JPL [ http://www.jpl.nasa…]/Caltech

dust

comet

aerogel

1974

2006

Jupiter

Uranus

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Earth

Jupiter

COMETS

Stardust

Uranus

1974

2006

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap990218