Don Brownlee
Don Brownlee
basic bring collect comet earth material mission primary purpose solar stardust
The primary purpose of the Stardust mission was to collect comet dust, the most basic material of the solar system, and bring it back to Earth for study.
aided blown entire eye high particle
You can't see them with the unaided eye (but) with the aided eye (through a microscope) you can see everything. A little particle blown up to high magnification is like working on an entire state! It's amazing.
mystery
This is very exciting. It's a mystery story.
scientific
It's a crystalline silicate grain. This is great; we've already got scientific results.
backyard bringing collected comet course dust lands material particle per primitive square tons year
Each year we have 30 to 40,000 tons of primitive material from comets and asteroids that lands on Earth, and this is about one particle per square meter per day. So during the course of our seven-year mission, there was more comet dust collected in your backyard than what we're bringing home.
atoms attachment blocks bodies building carbon fact forth literally planetary rings solar stardust strong system
These are literally the building blocks of our planetary system. Personally, I feel a strong attachment to this thing and we should all feel a strong attachment to it because the fact is all the atoms in our bodies -- the carbon atoms and the oxygen, nitrogen, potassium and calcium and so forth -- all those atoms were in stardust rings ... before the solar system formed.
atoms blocks bodies building carbon comet coming forth literally planetary solar stardust system
These are literally the building blocks of our planetary system. All of the atoms in our bodies - the carbon atoms, the oxygen, the nitrogen, potassium, calcium and so forth - all of those atoms were in stardust grains like those coming out of the comet now before the solar system formed.
convey hard people situations tense
It's hard to convey to people how tense these situations can be.
return risk simplest stardust
The capsule's return is probably the simplest of all the things Stardust has done and has the least risk. Nonetheless, it has to work.
blocks building literally planetary
These are literally the building blocks of our planetary system.
includes science surprised
This is when the real science begins. And I wouldn't be surprised if what we find includes some surprises.
blocks bringing building collecting edge history original planets solar
This is a history project. We are going to the edge of the solar system, collecting the original building blocks of the planets and bringing them back to our labs.
materials study
But the study of these materials will go on for decades.
earth easy fairly life planets
Life is fairly easy to create, but I think planets like Earth are going to be rare.