Mission Stardust

The Stardust spacecraft is coming home.

I watched a segment about it on The Discovery Channel a few months ago and thought what a cool mission this is: launch a spacecraft to rendezvous with the Comet Wild 2 (it took 5 years!), then maneuver behind it, catch some of the particles that are flinging off, and finally return to Earth with the spacedust for analysis. (I still find it incredible that we have the know-how to do these space feats with precision!)

The launch was seven years ago. And now it's seven years later. January 15, 2006 is the touchdown date.

There'll be some submicroscopic interstellar dust to be analyzed, but first it all needs to be carefully searched for and found in the amazing aerogel that was used to catch the particles. The number and size of the particles is miniscule compared to the size of the aerogel, so researchers are actually asking online public joes like us to use our computers to help look for the stuff with 'virtual microscopes'! Anyone can sign up and so I registered to be a potential volunteer, although I'm not sure how much time I can dedicate for the search. Still, I think it's a wonderful concept.

I'm continuing to read up on it with keen interest as it's supposed to be a big deal, although I still don't quite understand how much unique information may be added to our current knowledge of the universe.

(Additional: summarized video clip)