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...
absolutely seeing variety
We're seeing a variety of things that we know absolutely come from a comet.
billion desert formed great lake landed larger last million nearly particles salt seven solar space stardust system three traveling treasure
Last Sunday, after seven years in space traveling nearly three billion miles, Stardust landed in the Great Salt Lake Desert with a treasure from when the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago. We should have more than one million particles larger than one micron in diameter.
libraries records stored
The most interesting thing about comets is they are libraries with the stored records of our formation.
contains edge inside sample solar star system truly
Inside this thing is our treasure, our sample of the edge of the solar system that truly contains star dust.
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.
comet edge samples solar
It's thrilling. We have samples of a comet from the edge of the solar system.
extremely fire formed found high remarkably samples solar system
Remarkably enough, we have found fire and ice. We've found samples from the coldest part of the solar system that have mineral grains formed under extremely high temperatures.
exceeded grandest larger million particles
It exceeded all of our grandest expectations. We should have more than 1 million particles larger than 1 micron in diameter.
huge
It exceeds all expectations. It's a huge success.
huge lots small
It exceeds all expectations. It's a huge success. We can see lots of impacts. There are big ones, there are small ones.
epic overlooked people quite tends
It's really quite an epic thing. I think it tends to get overlooked because it's just a little mission, and there aren't any people on board.
half mass size
Our capsule is half the size and one-fourth the mass of Genesis,
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.
billion blocks building earth examine fantastic farthest formed solar soon system traveled
We're approaching the end of a fantastic voyage. This is the farthest anything from Earth has traveled and come back. Soon we'll be able to examine the building blocks that formed the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.