8738
Accession Number
32022
Author
Brownlee, Don;Tsou, Peter;Aleon, Jerome;Alexander, Conel M.O’D.;Araki, Tohru; Bajt, Sasa; Baratta, Guiseppe A.;Bastien, Ron;Bland, Phil;Bleuet, Pierre;Borg, Janet;Bradley, John P.;Brearley, Adrian;Brenker, F.;Brennan, Sean;Bridges, John C.;Browning, Nigel
Title Of Article Chaper
Comet 81P/Wild 2 Under a Microscope
Title Of Journal Book
Science
Volume
314
Pages
1711-1716
Collation
6 p. : ills.
Reference Bibliography
Includes bibliographic references
Language Of Text
English
Literature Type
Serial
Literature Level
Analytic
Abstract
The Stardust spacecraft collected thousands of particles from comet 81P/Wild 2 and returned them to Earth for laboratory study. The preliminary examination of these samples shows that the nonvolatile portion of the comet is an unequilibrated assortment of materials that have both presolar and solar system origin. The comet contains an abundance of silicate grains that are much larger than predictions of interstellar grain models, and many of these are high-temperature minerals that appear to have formed in the inner regions of the solar nebula. Their presence in a comet proves that the formation of the solar system included mixing on the grandest scale.
Keywords
comet;microscope;analysis
pub_id
8738