I don't know how scientists draw conclusions from thousands of bits of dust, but at least they get to play with these cool toys.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Stardust Coming Home
In space news you might have missed, the space probe "Stardust," which flew through the tail of a comet, will be returning to earth early Sunday morning. The probe captured space dust and other particles by means of a substance called "Aerogel." This is a pretty amazing material. Described as appearing like "frozen smoke," it is 99.8 percent empty space, and is a superior insulator. This is an unretouched photo of the stuff:
I don't know how scientists draw conclusions from thousands of bits of dust, but at least they get to play with these cool toys.
I don't know how scientists draw conclusions from thousands of bits of dust, but at least they get to play with these cool toys.
You're getting good at inserting photos into your posts. I was always one for finding books to read that had pictures in them.
ReplyDeleteI'd read about Stardust, but I had no idea what the Aerogel consisted of. That really does look like "out of this world" stuff.