Comet Wild 2 as seen from Stardust
NASA's Stardust spacecraft encountered the comet Wild 2 January 2, 2004. That's pronounced "vilt" since it was named after Paul Wild, the Swiss astronomer who discovered it in January 1978 and that's how his name is pronounced.
Stardust was launched in February 1999 to collect dust samples from the coma of the comet, but it also flew by and studied asteroid 5535 Annefrank.
The Sample Return Capsule separated from Stardust and entered Earth's atmosphere January 2006. Samples from Wild 2 were sent to Johnson Space Center in Houston for analysis. Scientists announced that glycine, an amino acid which is a fundamental chemical in building blocks of life, was detected for the first time in material ejected from a comet.
Stardust was given an extension and made a flyby of comet Tempel 1 in February 2011, although no samples were collected. The spacecraft was decommissioned March 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment