U of M physicist reads the history of the solar system in grains of comet dust

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Artistacutes impression of Stardustacutes encounter with Comet Wild 2. Scientists believe the material snatched from the trail of a comet could provide dramatic information about the birth of the solar system and the origins of life on Earth. Launche ...
Artist's impression of Stardust's encounter with Comet Wild 2. Scientists believe the material snatched from the trail of a comet could provide dramatic information about the birth of the solar system and the origins of life on Earth. Launched in 1999, the 385-kilogram (849-pound) probe, circled the Sun twice and then flew in January 2004 by comet Wild 2, which was located at the time next to Jupiter. Credit: NASA

Four years ago, NASA's Stardust spacecraft chased down a comet and collected grains of dust blowing off its nucleus. When the spacecraft Comet Wild-2 returned, comet dust was shipped to scientists all over the world, including University of Minnesota physics professor Bob Pepin. After testing helium and neon trapped in the dust specks, Pepin and his colleagues report that while the comet formed in the icy fringes of the solar system, the dust appears to have been born close to the infant sun and bombarded by intense radiation from these and other gases before being flung out beyond Neptune and trapped in the comet. The research appears in the Jan. 4 issue of the journal Science.


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