On January 2, 2004, NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew by comet Wild 2 to collect some comet dust and bring it back to Earth.
Stardust was the first robotic sample return mission of its kind. It didn't land on the comet, but it flew close enough to collect dust grain samples from the comet's coma. This is the cloudy region around a comet where evaporating ice and other particles are blown away from the comet's surface, forming the comet's characteristic "tail." Stardust also took some photos of the comet's icy nucleus before bringing the dust samples back to Earth less than two weeks later.
Stardust was the first robotic sample return mission of its kind. It didn't land on the comet, but it flew close enough to collect dust grain samples from the comet's coma. This is the cloudy region around a comet where evaporating ice and other particles are blown away from the comet's surface, forming the comet's characteristic "tail." Stardust also took some photos of the comet's icy nucleus before bringing the dust samples back to Earth less than two weeks later.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03On January 2nd, 2004, NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew by the comet Wild 2 to collect some comet dust and bring it back to Earth.
00:10Stardust was the first robotic sample return mission of its kind.
00:13It didn't land on the comet, but it flew close enough to collect dust grain samples from the comet's coma.
00:18This is the cloudy region around a comet where evaporating ice and other particles are blown away from the comet's surface, forming the comet's characteristic tail.
00:27Stardust also took some photos of the comet's icy nucleus before bringing the dust samples back to Earth less than two weeks later.
00:33And that's what happened on this day in space.