Catching Falling Stardust
Explanation:
This carrot-shaped track is actually little more than 5 hundredths
of an inch long.
It is the trail of a meteroid through the high-tech
substance aerogel
exposed to space by the shuttle launched
EURECA
(European Recoverable Carrier) spacecraft.
Like those in
the ongoing
Leonid meteor shower, this
meteoroid is about a thousandth of an inch in diameter.
It is visible where it came to rest, just
beyond the tip of the carrot at the far right.
Chemical analyses of
interplanetary dust particles similar
to this one suggest that some of them may be
bits
of comets and thus represent samples of material from
the
early stages of the formation of the Solar System.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
