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Stardust sample analysis

author: Nasa/Novapix

reference: e-son30-01521

Image Size 300 DPI: 21 * 29 cm

Stardust is an interplanetary spacecraft, whose primary purpose was to investigate the makeup of the comet Wild 2 and its coma. It was launched on February 07 1999 and returned to Earth on January 15 2006.
It is the first sample return mission to collect cosmic dust and return the sample to Earth.
On this image, a researcher is examining a Stardust aerogel tile under a stereo microscope.
Aerogel is an extremely low density solid with several remarkable properties, also named "solid smoke" or "frozen smoke".

Keywords for this photo:

2006 - AEROGEL - ASTRONOMY - COMET - HUMAN - MICROSCOPE - POSTFLIGHT - SAMPLE - SPACE - SPACECRAFT - SPACEPROBE - STARDUST - WILD 2 -