The "Comet Wild strain"?

[exoscientist]

NASA - Delivering Earth's First Comet.<br />"After successfully collecting particles of Comet Wild 2 on Jan. 2, 2004, Stardust's Sample Return Capsule reenters Earth's atmosphere and parachutes through the darkened sky on Jan. 15, 2006. The capsule touches down at approximately 3:15 a.m. (local time) within the Utah Test and Training Range."<br />http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/news/stardustf-20051114.html<br /><br />Deep Impact showed Comet Tempel I to contain carbonate and clay, remember:<br /><br />Comet’s minerals hint at liquid water. <br />18:47 08 September 2005 <br />NewScientist.com news service <br />"The comet crashed into by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft on 4 July 2005 contains material apparently formed by liquid water and not ice, according to new observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope. <br />"This could suggests the disc of gas and dust from which the solar system formed got mixed together billions of years ago, whisking matter from warm regions near the Sun outward – or that an unknown process may allow a layer of liquid water to exist beneath the dusty coatings on comets. <br />"Spitzer was one of the 80 or so telescopes trained on Comet 9P/Tempel 1 when it rammed into the 370-kilogram copper-tipped impactor sent into its path. A spectrometer on the telescope detected a mix of materials as they streamed off the comet, including crystallised silicates, clay and carbonates." <br />http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7971&feedId=online-news_rss20<br /><br />http://datacore.sciflicks.com/the_andromeda_strain/sounds/the_andromeda_strain_damn_fool.wav<br /><br />http://datacore.sciflicks.com/the_a</safety_wrapper <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[silylene old]

Ever notice how avian flu got started after Genesis crash landed and split open, exposing it's potentially dangerous collection of stardust to our fertile planet? Will Stardust release yet another Andromeda Strain on our civilization in Jan 2006?<br /><br />Stay Tuned! <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /> <br /><br />*chuckle* <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[centsworth_II]

I don't know about life, but it will be VERY interesting to see what variety and complexity of pre-biotic organic molecules are found. It could give a big hint as to what the starting list of ingredients was for life on Earth. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

<i>The issue is what are the compositions of the comets. That's what these missions are about. Not about life. The whole universe does NOT revolve around life, indeed is largely irrelevant to it.</i><br /><br /> That's a rather philosophical point, isn't it? If one believes in a Creator, one could argue life is the entire point of the Cosmos.<br /><br /><br /> - Bob <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[siriusmre]

I predict that they will discover that Comet Wild 2 is a rock. Oh, they'll say some things about it to make it seem more exotic than it is, but it will essentially be a rock. They may even find some "strange" isotopes or even nuclear material, which would be present due to the nature of the process by which the particles were excavated from the surface of the comet nucleus. That process? Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM).<br /><br />EDM -- common in industrial applications to micro-etch metallic and other surfaces, as well as to deposit micro-thin layers of material onto surfaces (<i>i.e.</i>, electroplating) and which causes electrical "hot spots" -- may actually be causing the "mysterious bright spots" seen on the surface of Comet Wild 2 as Stardust passed by it. It certainly would explain the comet's "jets." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[centsworth_II]

<font color="yellow">"We already know what the starting ingredients for life [were] on earth."</font><br />All speculation -- your great enemy. There is no way to go back and SEE what variety of compounds existed on the Earth four billion or more years ago. On the other hand, the materials of a comet studied today are likely similar to those provided to the newborn earth by the solar environment.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">"We don't need no stanking cometary samples to tell us..."</font><br />Astounding! We KNOW the composition of the planetary nebula? Stardust, and Deep impact, and New Horizons, and Rosetta, and... are all wastes of time and money? A major goal of all these mission is adding to our knowlege of the materials of the early solar system.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">"Complex organics have been already found in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites... It's old news."</font><br />What's that got to do with material from a comet? How many comets have been collected and analysed in the lab?<br /><br /><font color="yellow">"The issue is what are the compositions of the comets. That's what these missions are about. Not about life."</font><br />Look at the official website of any of the missions I refer to above and you'll see many references to learning something about the early Earth and the origin of life on earth. <br /> <br />From NASA's Deep Impact site: <br /><i>"Comets are the remainders of material formed in the coldest part of our solar system. Impacts from comets played a major role in the evolution of the Earth, primarily during its early history billions of years ago."</i><br /><br />Your reflexive distain for all reference to the search for life is getting out of hand when it extends to the search for life's origin ON EARTH! Surely you do not deny that this event took place and that to this day we do not know how. Despite your claim, there is much we do not know about organics on the early Earth. Sure, every mis <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[bonzelite]

as well, i think the more comets that are intimately investigated, the more variants of comets there will be discovered. at this time, it is still popularly held that comets are all the same. they probably are not all the same. <br /><br />some will be organically inert, while others may be claylike, with the cometary vents being different from comet to comet.

 

[CalliArcale]

You're probably right on the money there about there being wide variation. I would expect it to be at least as wide as the variation among non-cometary minor planets.<br /><br />I'm very much looking forward not only to Stardust's return but also to the Rosetta mission, currently en route to its target. Rosetta will stay with one comet for months, observing it in truly unprecedented detail over a long period of time. That's at least as remarkable as what Stardust and Deep Impact have done, and may actually prove more useful. It'll be interesting, that's for sure. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>