Searching for
stardust, at home
By Lisa Saremel
Volunteers
with Internet access are about to embark on a search for interstellar
particles, or stardust, the first sample of its kind to be brought back
to earth.
The Stardust spacecraft was launched in 1999 and last year collected particles from the comet Wild-2 as well as stardust, possibly the product of supernova explosions that occurred up to 10 million years ago.
Approximately 45 particles were captured in a substance called aerogel and stored inside a canister which landed safely in the Utah desert in mid-January.
NASA and scientists at the University of California in Berkeley have created a virtual microscope, which volunteers will use via internet access on home PCs to scan the millions of images of the aerogel to find the cosmic dust.
About 30,000 hours of work will be involved and volunteers who manage to 'discover' a particle are able to name it.
The stardust will give valuable insight into how the solar system was created, being made up of unaltered space material.
Find out more about Stardust – NASA's Comet Sample Return Mission on the Stardust website.
The Centre
for Volunteering [ABN 28 002 416 024]
Level 2, 228 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
T: 02 9261 3600 | F: 02 9261 4033 | E: info@volunteering.com.au
www.volunteering.com.au