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Post Info TOPIC: The Stardust probe
Blobrana


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RE: The Stardust probe
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Scientists have identified one of the fundamental chemical buildings blocks of life in a comet for the first time, the US space agency (Nasa) reports.
Glycine is an amino acid found in proteins, the sophisticated molecules that organisms use to build and maintain their systems.
It was detected in the material ejected from Comet Wild-2 in 2004 and grabbed by Nasa's Stardust probe.

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Blobrana


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Stardust-NExT flyby
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Stardust Spacecraft Flyby 1-14-09


The flyby of the Stardust Spacecraft as captured by C-14 Telescope.
The Spacecraft moves from lower right to upper left.
Date/Time: 2009 JAN 14, 05:14 to 05:47 UT

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Blobrana


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Orbital elements:

NExT
   Perigee 2009 Jan 14.817155 TT = 19:36:42 (JD 2454846.317155)
Epoch 2009 Jan 14.8 TT = JDT 2454846.3                  Find_Orb
q 15285.5km              (2000.0)            P               Q
H   28.0  G 0.15   Peri.  148.18         0.31632         0.16266
                   Node   100.54        -0.93836         0.19836
e   2.5883         Incl.  108.07         0.13934         0.96653
From 14 observations 2008 Dec. 31-2009 Jan. 2

Ephemeris:
Date (UT)  HH   RA              Dec         delta   r     elong mag  

2009 01 14 00  05 47 20.512   +35 59 10.30  480329 0.9863 150.9 16.7 
2009 01 14 04  05 46 04.917   +36 35 39.13  385735 0.9858 150.3 16.3 
2009 01 14 08  05 43 57.439   +37 35 48.16  290650 0.9852 149.4 15.7 
2009 01 14 12  05 39 34.734   +39 34 25.92  194734 0.9847 147.6 14.9 
2009 01 14 16  05 24 50.942   +45 24 21.91   97127 0.9841 142.4 13.5 
2009 01 14 20  18 25 33.135   -12 33 22.86   19387 0.9835  21.1 19.1  
2009 01 15 00  16 00 11.436   -63 19 58.66  117176 0.9832  56.5 17.5



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Blobrana


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RE: The Stardust probe
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On January 14 the Stardust-NExT interplanetary spaceprobe will make a close pass of the Earth. The purpose of the flyby is to make perturbation (gravitational) manoeuvre in the trajectory towards the comet 9/P Tempel 1.
Observations of the event is favourable for amateurs in Europe.
The  approach minimum distance will be at 19: 17 UTC, and will be well placed, high in the sky. The expected apparent magnitude  of the spaceprobe may reach magnitude 11 -12.

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Blobrana


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NExT spacecraft
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The NExT spacecraft will make a Earth flyby on the 14th January, 2009 @ 19:33 UTC

Ephemeris
Date       UT      R.A. (J2000) Decl.  Elong.  V        Motion      Distance
            h m                                      "/min   P.A.       km
2009 01 11 1200   05 51 10.5 +34 06 49 154.6          0.55  335.5    1882964
2009 01 12 0000   05 50 55.6 +34 13 49 154.1          0.74  336.6    1602805
2009 01 12 1200   05 50 35.3 +34 23 40 153.5          1.07  337.3    1322477
2009 01 13 0000   05 50 05.0 +34 38 42 152.8          1.72  337.5    1041814
2009 01 13 1200   05 49 12.7 +35 04 42 152.1          3.21  337.6     760535
2009 01 14 0000   05 47 17.6 +36 01 07 150.9          8.10  337.3     478007
2009 01 14 1200   05 39 15.4 +39 42 25 147.5         50.13  336.1     192042
2009 01 15 0000   16 01 37.8 -63 04 57  56.2         128.1  223.5     120121
2009 01 15 1200   15 06 24.5 -67 57 06  63.3         11.08  236.0     408097
2009 01 16 0000   14 54 31.5 -68 39 29  64.8          3.84  238.4     691075
2009 01 16 1200   14 49 22.7 -68 56 24  65.6          1.92  239.0     972436
2009 01 17 0000   14 46 32.6 -69 05 34  66.1          1.14  238.7    1252951
2009 01 17 1200   14 44 46.9 -69 11 22  66.6          0.74  237.7    1532916
2009 01 18 0000   14 43 36.6 -69 15 25  66.9          0.51  236.1    1812470
2009 01 18 1200   14 42 48.0 -69 18 25  67.3          0.37  233.7    2091686
2009 01 19 0000   14 42 13.6 -69 20 46  67.6          0.27  230.4    2370604
2009 01 19 1200   14 41 49.4 -69 22 40  68.0          0.21  225.9    2649244
2009 01 20 0000   14 41 32.5 -69 24 15  68.3          0.16  219.9    2927616
2009 01 20 1200   14 41 21.3 -69 25 36  68.6          0.12  211.7    3205722
2009 01 21 0000   14 41 14.6 -69 26 46  68.9          0.10  201.1    3483560
2009 01 21 1200   14 41 11.4 -69 27 48  69.2          0.08  187.9    3761124
2009 01 22 0000   14 41 11.3 -69 28 44  69.5          0.07  173.1    4038406
2009 01 22 1200   14 41 13.7 -69 29 34  69.7          0.07  158.7    4315396
2009 01 23 0000   14 41 18.3 -69 30 20  70.0          0.07  146.3    4592083
2009 01 23 1200   14 41 24.8 -69 31 02  70.3          0.08  136.4    4868454
2009 01 24 0000   14 41 33.0 -69 31 41  70.6          0.08  128.7    5144496
2009 01 24 1200   14 41 42.7 -69 32 17  70.9          0.09  122.9    5420195
2009 01 25 0000   14 41 53.7 -69 32 52  71.1          0.10  118.4    5695537
2009 01 25 1200   14 42 06.0 -69 33 24  71.4          0.10  114.8    5970507
2009 01 26 0000   14 42 19.5 -69 33 54  71.7          0.11  111.9    6245089
2009 01 26 1200   14 42 34.0 -69 34 23  72.0          0.12  109.6    6519269
2009 01 27 0000   14 42 49.6 -69 34 50  72.3          0.12  107.7    6793030
2009 01 27 1200   14 43 06.0 -69 35 16  72.5          0.13  106.1    7066356
2009 01 28 0000   14 43 23.4 -69 35 41  72.8          0.13  104.7    7339231
2009 01 28 1200   14 43 41.5 -69 36 05  73.1          0.14  103.5    7611639
2009 01 29 0000   14 44 00.5 -69 36 28  73.4          0.14  102.4    7883563
2009 01 29 1200   14 44 20.3 -69 36 50  73.6          0.15  101.5    8154986
2009 01 30 0000   14 44 40.8 -69 37 11  73.9          0.15  100.7    8425891
2009 01 30 1200   14 45 02.0 -69 37 31  74.2          0.16  100.0    8696260


The STARDUST-NExT spacecraft is derived from the Space Probe deep space bus developed by Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado. This new lightweight spacecraft incorporates components, virtually all of which are either currently operating in space or are flight qualified and manifested to fly on upcoming missions.
The total weight of the spacecraft including the propellant needed for deep space manoeuvres is 380 kilograms. The overall length of the main bus is 1.7 metres, about the size of an average office desk.

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Blobrana


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Stardust Return Capsule
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Stardust Return Capsule Joins the Milestones of Flight on Display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
After a 3 billion-mile journey to rendezvous with a comet, the Stardust return capsule joins the national collection of flight icons Wednesday, Oct. 1, the 50th anniversary of NASA. The capsule will be prominently displayed in the central Milestones of Flight gallery, home to many of the "firsts" of flight, including Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1 and the Apollo 11 Command Module.

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Blobrana


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In a new analysis of rare comet dust samples, a team of researchers including Takayuki Ushikubo, Noriko Kita, and John Valley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has identified unexpected chemical and isotope signatures that challenge existing views about the formation and history of the solar system. Tiny crystals from the Wild 2 comet, captured by NASAs Stardust mission, resemble fragments of the molten mineral droplets called chondrules, shown here, found in primitive meteorites. That similar flash-heated particles were found in Wild 2, a comet formed in the icy fringes of outer space, suggests that solid materials may have been transported outward in the young solar system

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Fragments of cosmic material captured by a NASA mission have arrived at The University of Manchester for analysis, with researchers hoping to unlock the secrets of what space was like billions of years ago.
Scientists in Manchester have received small fragments of material from the Wild 2 comet (pronounced 'Vilt 2' after the Swiss astronomer who discovered it), which was brought back to earth by NASA's Stardust space mission.

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Blobrana


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Samples of the material picked up during the NASA Stardust mission indicate that parts of the comet Wild 2 actually formed in an area close to the sun.
New research by an international collaboration including Livermore researcher Saa Bajt analysed noble gases within Stardust samples. The helium and neon isotope analysis suggests that some of the Stardust  grains match a special type of carbonaceous material found in meteorites; hence both must have spent time in the same gas reservoir, which was close to the sun.

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Après huit ans de voyage, la mission Stardust de la NASA (programme Discovery) rapportait sur Terre, le 15 janvier 2006, des poussières de quelques microns émanant de la comète 81P/Wild 2. Ces poussières piégées dans un aérogel de silice témoignent de la composition des comètes qui fait encore débat. Formées loin du soleil, les comètes n'ont jamais été portées à haute température et conservent les gaz primordiaux. Des équipes françaises ont participé à cette aventure et reçu pour analyse des grains de la comète, parmi elles, le Centre de recherches pétrographiques et géochimiques de Nancy (CRPG, CNRS). Bernard Marty et ses collègues américains des universités du Minesota, de Berkeley et du Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory livrent cette semaine dans la revue Science les premières analyses de gaz rares de comètes jamais réalisées en laboratoire. Ces gaz présentent des similarités avec ceux piégés dans la matière organique des météorites primitives, avec des concentrations jusqu'à un million de fois plus élevées. Ces données attestent d'un lien génétique possible entre ces objets et d'un processus d'implantation par irradiation précoce par le Soleil naissant. Elles rendent crédible une contribution importante des comètes aux atmosphères des planètes internes. Les équipes scientifiques ont bénéficié, au fil des années, d'un soutien important du CNES et de l'Institut national des sciences de l'univers du CNRS, ainsi que d'un support de la région Lorraine

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