What will Stardust find?

[exoscientist]

<br />NASA Postpones Stardust Mission Media Update. <br />"NASA has postponed the Stardust comet mission media briefing scheduled <br />for 1 p.m. EST (12 p.m. CST), Tuesday. The agency plans to allow the <br />Stardust science team additional time to assess and distribute cometary <br />samples before scheduling media briefings. <br />"NASA has enlisted more than 150 experts to accelerate sample studies. <br />The first samples will be shipped to researchers this week." <br />http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=18821 <br /><br /><br />Will there be found "tar" in the particles? The interstellar dust <br />collector on Stardust had already found complex organic tar-like <br />molecules with its CIDA mass spectrometer: <br /><br />Tarlike macro-molecules detected in 'stardust' <br />MAX-PLANCK INSTITUTE NEWS RELEASE <br />Posted: April 29, 2000 <br />"It is the size of these molecular fragments with nuclear masses of up <br />to 2000 (water e.g. has 18 such units) which surprised us as much as <br />the seemingly absence of any mineral constituents", explains Dr. Kissel <br />of the Garching-based Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische <br />Physik. "Only organic molecules can reach those sizes". The largest <br />molecules found in space so far are the polycyclic aromatic <br />hydrocarbons (PAH) which reach masses of a few hundred mass units. <br />"The details of the mass spectra measured with CIDA show that the <br />molecules of the interstellar dust must have about 10 percent of <br />nitrogen and/or oxygen in addition to hydrogen and carbon. This means <br />that these cannot be pure PAHs, which are planar, but are especially <br />due to the nitrogen extend into all three spacial directions." <br />http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0004/29tarstardust/ <br /><br />These "tar-like" particles were presumed to be inters <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>