World Report: February 5, 1999 Vol.4 No.l6
- This Issue:
- Table of Contents
- Cover Story
- Cover Story - Spanish Version
- Mini-Lesson
- Comprehension Quiz
- Teacher's Guide and Worksheets
Nasa Chases A Comet's Dust
On February 6, the Stardust spacecraft will begin the longest round-trip space mission so far. The 874-pound craft will travel 3 billion miles during seven years. Its goal: to collect space dust from a comet and return to Earth with the dust, which may be older than our solar system.
"We have this opportunity to bring home something believed to be from before the planets formed," says Stardust scientist Kenneth Atkins.
Stardust will make two trips around the sun, then slingshot itself to a comet called Wild 2 (pronounced Vilt). The comet travels between Jupiter and Mars.
On the way, Stardust will open its particle collector for 150 days to catch space dust. The collector looks like a giant tennis racket, but it's coated with a gooey substance called aerogel. After the encounter, Stardust will orbit the sun again. On January 15, 2006, if all goes well, it will drop a capsule full of precious dust into the Earth's atmosphere. NASA scientists can hardly wait to study it.
