Made Out of Stardust? Or Vice Versa?

[3113]

And here's your science lesson for the day:

SAN FRANCISCO - Detailed observations from the first comet samples returned to Earth are debunking some of science's long-held beliefs on how the icy, celestial bodies form. Scientists expected the minute grains retrieved from a comet Wild 2 to be made up mostly of interstellar dust — tiny particles that flow through the solar system thought to be from ancient stars that exploded and died.

Instead, they found an unusual mix of primordial material as if the solar system had turned itself inside out. Hot particles from the inner solar system migrated out to the cold, outer fringes beyond Pluto where they intermingled and congealed to form a comet.

"People imagine that comets form in total isolation, which is definitely not true," said Don Brownlee, a University of Washington astronomer who is the principal scientist for the $212 million Stardust mission.

Brownlee estimated that up to 10 percent of materials in comets may come from the inner solar system....

A capsule carrying thousands of minuscule samples from comet Wild 2 returned to Earth last January after looping around the sun to capture the interstellar and comet debris and swooping past Wild 2 to scoop up dust. Scientists had dubbed Wild 2 a frozen time capsule because it contained material preserved from the aftermath of the solar system's birth more than 4.5 billion years ago.

How material from the inner solar system could have ended up in comets is still a mystery. Brownlee said the solar system-forming process was probably chaotic and unstable, allowing high-temperature particles to loft billions of miles out to the edge of the solar system.

Many of the grains contained high-temperature minerals that likely formed in the hottest part of the solar nebula. At least one grain was made of a rare mineral seen in some meteorites, which are among the oldest samples in the solar system.

An analysis also found Wild 2 appeared to differ from comet Tempel 1, which was studied in NASA's Deep Impact mission. Last July, the space agency crashed a probe into Tempel 1 and studied the dust and ice spewing from its belly. It did not retrieve any samples from the surface.

In an accompanying editorial, Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, who is also the Deep Impact chief scientist, said the Stardust results have gotten scientists thinking about their original views.

"Stardust has certainly brought us plenty of food for thought," A'Hearn wrote.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

IT'S TRUE! IT'S TRUE!

They do exist!

http://www.yerf.com/pronamy/pepleatr.jpg​

Rumple Foreskin

 

[TxRad]

I'll have some of what ^^^^ He's drinking.....

Wait until they find out that comets are like snowflakes... no two are alike....

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I really don't see what's so amazing about that discovery anyone with the sense god gave them could tell you how dust is driven by the solar winds to the outer fringe of the solar system where any wandering comet could pick up the dust as it passes through on it way toward the sun.

Or

As the comet swings it's way around the sun toward the inner planets it picks up the dust.

Or

There are such things as purple people eaters.

 

[3113]

I really don't see what's so amazing about that discovery anyone with the sense god gave them could tell you how dust is driven by the solar winds to the outer fringe of the solar system where any wandering comet could pick up the dust as it passes through on it way toward the sun.

Or

As the comet swings it's way around the sun toward the inner planets it picks up the dust.

Or

There are such things as purple people eaters.

You have no sense of wonder.

I bet you don't believe in Santa, either.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

I really don't see what's so amazing about that discovery anyone with the sense god gave them could tell you how dust is driven by the solar winds to the outer fringe of the solar system where any wandering comet could pick up the dust as it passes through on it way toward the sun.

*weighs the options*

Scientific Community amazed....

...some forum guy online not-amazed.

Hmm.

i think I'll throw in, just this once, with the scientifict community. If they think its significantly different (above alpha, so to speak), I believe 'em. We can't all--afterall--be online porn forum geniuses.

Bada-chi.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You have no sense of wonder.

I bet you don't believe in Santa, either.

Nor the tooth fairy...

But I do have a sense of wonder every time I look at my grandchildren, at how little they where when they were born and how big they get so fast.

Why it seemed just like yesterday that my littlest started walking...wait...no it was Monday. She's so cute, with her arms in the air, as she tries to catch up with grandma. Kind of looks like ET as he ran around the room.

That is what I find wonderful.

What a bunch of scientists found in comet dust, while intriguing, should come as no surprise. After all it is they who expounded the theory that as the sun ignited that the left over dust from the planets was blown toward the edge of the solar system. So if that happened why wouldn't comets, which hang out in the outer reaches of the solar system, be composed of dust particles from the inner planets?

Just seems logical to me.

Or maybe it's two different branches of science and the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. Maybe they should all get together and talk a little bit before being amazed.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

*weighs the options*

Scientific Community amazed....

...some forum guy online not-amazed.

Hmm.

i think I'll throw in, just this once, with the scientifict community. If they think its significantly different (above alpha, so to speak), I believe 'em. We can't all--afterall--be online porn forum geniuses.

Bada-chi.

See my post above.

 

[3113]

Nor the tooth fairy...

But I do have a sense of wonder every time I look at my grandchildren, at how little they where when they were born and how big they get so fast.

*yawn* hm? What? Oh, yeah, how about that. Kids grow up. Who woulda thought? Ya know, it's the strangest thing, but when you "bah-humbug!" the wonder and interest that others of us feel about subjects you find boring, including a bit of dust, you make me just a little more inclined to mock and dismiss your feelings of wonder, whatever they might be about.

Why do you suppose that is?

Or maybe it's two different branches of science and the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing.

MY GOSH! You're right! They get this stuff back from outerspace, stuff that requires expensive equiptment and years of prep and time, and probably was talked about in all the science newsletters, yet, clearly, the astonomers on earth have kept other interested scientists in the dark! And for a WHOLE YEAR! That means that those in the know didn't sent out e-mails to chemists, didn't discuss it at conferences with geologists, or write articles about it or mention it at parties. For a WHOLE YEAR.

I'm appalled. That must be why they haven't figured it all out and you have

NOT!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

*yawn* hm? What? Oh, yeah, how about that. Kids grow up. Who woulda thought? Ya know, it's the strangest thing, but when you "bah-humbug!" the wonder and interest that others of us feel about subjects you find boring, including a bit of dust, you make me just a little more inclined to mock and dismiss your feelings of wonder, whatever they might be about.

Why do you suppose that is?


MY GOSH! You're right! They get this stuff back from outerspace, stuff that requires expensive equiptment and years of prep and time, and probably was talked about in all the science newsletters, yet, clearly, the astonomers on earth have kept other interested scientists in the dark! And for a WHOLE YEAR! That means that those in the know didn't sent out e-mails to chemists, didn't discuss it at conferences with geologists, or write articles about it or mention it at parties. For a WHOLE YEAR.

I'm appalled. That must be why they haven't figured it all out and you have

NOT!

I just have to laugh at post such as this...what did you expect them to find in that dust? Martian boogers?

You will probably be one of those who are amazed that life exists on other worlds in our galaxy. *shakes head in amazement*