Published December 15, 2006
| public
Journal Article
Comet 81P/Wild 2 Under a Microscope
Chicago
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Abstract
The Stardust spacecraft collected thousands of particles from comet 81P/Wild 2 and returned them to Earth for laboratory study. The preliminary examination of these samples shows that the nonvolatile portion of the comet is an unequilibrated assortment of materials that have both presolar and solar system origin. The comet contains an abundance of silicate grains that are much larger than predictions of interstellar grain models, and many of these are high-temperature minerals that appear to have formed in the inner regions of the solar nebula. Their presence in a comet proves that the formation of the solar system included mixing on the grandest scales.
Additional Information
© 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 3 October 2006; accepted 17 November 2006. The Stardust sample analysis team is grateful to NASA for funding and supporting the mission and to the hundreds of other team members that were involved in design, construction, flying, and recovery of the mission. The team, from 100 organizations, gratefully acknowledges their supporting institutions.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 51632
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- CaltechAUTHORS:20141112-085628838
- NASA
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2014-11-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
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2023-03-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field