Stardust mission
Stardust was a NASA mission that collected dust from comet Wild 2 and returned it to Earth in 2006.
Stardust was a NASA mission launched in February 1999. In January 2004 it flew through the dusty coma of comet 81P/Wild 2 at about 6 kilometres per second and caught particles in a collector filled with aerogel, an extremely light, porous glass. It also collected interstellar dust on the way. The sample capsule parachuted into the Utah desert on 15 January 2006, the first return of material from a comet.
The results were a surprise. Many grains contained minerals that formed at very high temperatures, such as olivine, pyroxene and even a CAI-like object nicknamed Inti, as well as chondrule-like fragments. A comet that formed in the cold outer Solar System contained material made close to the Sun.
This showed that the young Solar System was well mixed, with hot inner material carried outwards. Stardust also found the amino acid glycine in comet material, an important result for questions about the ingredients of life.
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