Sunday, December 17

"a pinch of comet dust"

University of Washington astronomer Donald Brownlee examines a particle from comet Wild 2 using an electron microscope. Brownlee is principal investigator for the Stardust mission, which captured material from Wild 2 and then returned to Earth in January 2006. Credit: Mary Levin/University of Washington


Stardust findings override some commonly held astronomy beliefs from PhysOrg.com

Contrary to a popular scientific notion, there was enough mixing in the early solar system to transport material from the sun's sizzling neighborhood and deposit it in icy deep-space comets. It might have been like a gentle eddy in a stream or more like an artillery blast, but evidence from the Stardust mission shows that material from the sun’s vicinity traveled to the edge of the solar system, beyond Pluto, as the planets were born.[...]

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