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NASA has postponed the Stardust comet mission media briefing scheduled for 1 p.m. EST (12 p.m. CST), Tuesday. The agency plans to allow the Stardust science team additional time to assess and distribute cometary samples before scheduling media briefings.

NASA has enlisted more than 150 experts to accelerate sample studies.
The first samples will be shipped to researchers this week.

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NASA Announces Stardust Mission Media Update

The next Stardust comet mission media briefing is at 18:00 GMT (1 p.m. EST), Tuesday, January 24 in room 135, Building 2, Johnson Space Centre, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston.

The briefing will be live on NASA TV with questions also from reporters at participating agency centres. NASA experts will discuss the analysis of comet and interstellar dust samples returned by the Stardust spacecraft.

Participants:
-- Dr. Donald Brownlee, Stardust Principal Investigator, University of Washington, Seattle
-- Dr. Peter Tsou, Deputy Principal Investigator, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
-- Dr. Michael Zolensky, Stardust Curator and Co-investigator, Johnson Space Centre

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Close-up view of a cometary impact (centre) into aerogel was inspected by scientists at a laboratory at the Johnson Space Centre hours after the Stardust Sample Return Canister was delivered to the Johnson Space Centre from the spacecraft's landing site in Utah.
Image credit: NASA

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Blobrana


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Aerogel
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The sample-return canister from the Stardust spacecraft has been opened by Scientists at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston.

"It exceeds all expectations. It's a huge success. We can see lots of impacts. There are big ones, there are small ones" - Donald Brownlee, University of Washington astronomy professor who is principal investigator, or lead scientist, for Stardust.

Brownlee calculated there might be more than a million microscopic specks of dust embedded in Stardust's aerogel collector.
Aerogel, a remarkable material that is as much as 99.9 percent empty space, greatly reduced the stress of impact on the particles. The carrot-shaped tracks of much larger particles are visible in the aerogel from several feet away, and in some of the tracks the black comet dust is visible at the end of the track. One track, "is almost large enough to put your little finger into it."


This closeup shows particles captured in the aerogel. The particles leave a cone-shaped trail in the aerogel.

Scientists will search the aerogel grid for dust samples, and more than 65,000 people have signed up to help in a project called Stardust@home, in which their home computers will examine images of tiny sections of the aerogel grid looking for dust particles.

The Johnson Space Centre will be the curator of the Stardust samples, and as many as 150 scientists worldwide are waiting to study them.

"Stardust is a phenomenal success" - Donald Brownlee.

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The Stardust sample return capsule successfully landed at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time. The capsule contains cometary and interstellar samples gathered by the Stardust spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA

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Stardust Capsule
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Expand (32kb, 720 x 540)
An infrared camera captures the Stardust sample return capsule as it descends to the Utah Test and Training Range. This image was taken from NASA TV.
The capsule contains cometary and interstellar samples gathered by the Stardust spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA


Expand (45kb, 720 x 540)
An infrared camera captures a recovery helicopter at the landing site of the Stardust sample return capsule. This image was taken from NASA TV.
NASA's Stardust sample return capsule successfully landed at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time (3:10 a.m. Mountain time). The capsule contains cometary and interstellar samples gathered by the Stardust spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA

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The Stardust landing
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Watch the landing:
realplayer video



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Blobrana


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The US probe Stardust successfully released the 45kg capsule at 05:57 GMT as it looped past the Earth on its return from its 4.7 billion-km deep space trip. The capsule plunged through the atmosphere and touched down in the Utah desert at 10:12 GMT (03:12 local time).

Four hours after leaving the probe, the capsule entered the Earth's atmosphere 125km over the Pacific Ocean, reaching speeds of 46,660kph - the fastest re-entry of any manmade probe - and was visible from parts of the American northwest as a streak of light in the sky.
At about 32km altitude, the capsule released a small parachute to slow its descent.
The main parachute opened at about 3km, and brought the capsule down to land on a military base southwest of Salt Lake City.
The capsule was located by helicopter almost an hour after the landing. It will be flown to an army building, then to a special lab at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

Scientists believe the pristine particles snatched from a comet and interstellar space will give insights into the origins of the Solar System.

"The tiny particles that the Stardust mission is bringing back are the most scientifically exciting and technically challenging material that we have ever had the opportunity to study" - Monica Grady of the Planetary and Space Science Research Institute.

It is the first time in history that a space mission has brought back such material.

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