Pay dirt: cometary dust collector comes home.Streaking through Earth's atmosphere “Air” redirects here. For other uses, see Air (disambiguation). Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It contains roughly (by molar content/volume) 78% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0. after a 7-year, 5.6-billion-kilometer journey, a space capsule carrying comet and interstellar in·ter·stel·lar adj. Between or among the stars: interstellar gases. interstellar Adjective between or among stars Adj. 1. dust landed in the Utah desert on Jan. 15. NASA's Stardust star·dust n. 1. A dreamlike, romantic, or uncritical sense of well-being. 2. A cluster of stars too distant to be seen individually, resembling a dimly luminous cloud of dust. Not in scientific use. 3. spacecraft collected its most precious cargo Precious Cargo is the 37th episode (production #211) of the television series . Synopsis While answering a distress call, Trip is kidnapped along with a spoiled and beautiful alien princess. 2 years ago, when the craft passed within 24 km of the dust-venting nucleus of Comet Wild-2 (SN: 7/3/04, p. 13). Scientists expect the dust to provide new clues to the solar system's origin because comets are nearly pristine relics of that time. The tiny dust grains are the first samples of solid extraterrestrial material to be collected and brought back to Earth since the last moon rocks arrived in 1972. A craft bearing gaseous samples of the solar wind crashed when it returned to Earth in 2004. |
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