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...
ancient brought cosmic edge solar treasure
We've brought back an ancient cosmic treasure from the very edge of the solar system.
almost entire excellent left
We're in excellent shape. We've done almost everything we have to do in the entire mission...only thing left is to come into the Earth.
absolutely seeing variety
We're seeing a variety of things that we know absolutely come from a comet.
ability quickly totally
We were totally overwhelmed by the ability to actually see this so quickly and so straightforwardly.
formed hottest regions solar
If it was formed in our solar system, then it had to be transported from the hottest regions to the coolest.
either found siberia solar
When they formed, they were either red-hot or white-hot and we found them in the Siberia of the solar system.
comet expect fully older particles
We fully expect some of the comet particles to be older than the sun.
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.
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.
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.
ended might standing
They always ended up with a rigid, crusty material. If you were standing on it you might go right through it.
contain discussion lots minerals whether
Scientifically, that's great, because there's been lots of discussion of whether comets contain minerals or glass.
libraries records stored
The most interesting thing about comets is they are libraries with the stored records of our formation.
ability jumping totally
That's why we were jumping up and down. We were totally overwhelmed by the ability to actually see this.