[FPSPACE] Article online about Stardust in Nature

[LARRY KLAES]

Published online: 13 February 2006

A comet's tale.

"Whatever it is, it's weird"

After fiddling around to improve the picture slightly, Kearsley starts a 
more intensive scan of the grain that will reveal its chemical make-up. As 
the analysis comes through, there are cries of surprise. "Whatever it is, 
it's weird," says Bland.

"The team agonize over the decision to make another scan to get more 
accurate results, but Kearsley is worried about "frying" the sample. "These 
grains have had a long journey and rather a lot of money spent on them," he 
cautions.

"They can see that just a few minutes exposure to high-energy electrons has 
changed the structure of some of the epoxy surrounding the grain, so they 
finally decide that the initial results are so astonishing that they should 
contact Mike Zolensky at Johnson Space Center immediately to tell him about 
the find, and wait for further instructions. Zolensky is in charge of the 
preliminary analysis of the samples, and is collating all the information 
from these first tests."

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060213/full/060213-2.html