Stardust

Spacecraft· NASAinactive

Stardust — flew through the coma of comet Wild 2 (2004) and returned its dust samples to Earth (2006); later visited comet Tempel 1.

Open in 3D viewSee Stardust in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Current speed

21 km/s

Distance from Sun

1.62 AU

Status

Completed

Launched

1999

Mission & specifications

Mission

Operator: NASA
Launched: February 7, 1999
Status: Completed

Trajectory

Current speed: 21 km/s
Distance from the Sun: 1.62 AU
Distance from Earth: 1.18 AU
Distance from Venus: 0.898 AU

Cost & funding

Program cost: $3.00 × 10⁸ USD

Mission

Stardust was the first mission to bring samples of a comet back to Earth, and the first to return solid material from beyond the Moon. Launched on 7 February 1999, its goal was to fly through the cloud of dust and gas surrounding a comet and physically catch some of it. To do that it carried a tennis-racket-shaped collector filled with aerogel, a wispy, ultralight glass foam that could trap tiny grains travelling at thousands of kilometres per hour without burning or shattering them. On 2 January 2004 Stardust swept through the coma of comet Wild 2, snaring thousands of particles while photographing the comet's pitted, surprisingly rugged nucleus. Two years later, on 15 January 2006, it released a capsule that streaked back through the atmosphere and parachuted down in the Utah desert. The captured grains held a surprise: alongside the expected ices were minerals that could only have formed at very high temperatures, close to the young Sun, implying that material had been transported across the entire early Solar System. The samples even contained glycine, an amino acid. Still healthy, Stardust was sent on an extended mission and flew past a second comet, Tempel 1, in 2011.

1999Launch toward comet Wild 2Launch
Sets out to catch comet dust in aerogel and return it to Earth.
2004Through the coma of Wild 2Flyby
Flies through the comet's cloud of gas and dust, trapping thousands of grains.
2006Sample capsule returns to EarthLanding
The capsule parachutes into Utah — the first comet dust, later found to contain glycine.
2011Extended mission to Tempel 1Flyby
Still healthy, Stardust flies past a second comet, imaging the crater Deep Impact had made.

Images

The Stardust comet-sample spacecraft (artist's concept) — not a photograph — NASA (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons

Spacecraft Trajectory Animation — NASA/JPL · NASA Image Library

Sample Return Capsule — NASA · NASA Image Library

Dust Collector with Aerogel — NASA/JPL · NASA Image Library

Comet Wild 2 - Stereo Image Pair — NASA/JPL · NASA Image Library

Sample Return Capsule Landing Artist Concept — NASA/JPL · NASA Image Library

Stardust Worlds — NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Maryland/Cornell · NASA Image Library

NASA Comet Hunter Spots its Valentine — NASA/JPL-Caltech · NASA Image Library

Images from open archives · credit shown per image