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Stardust interstellar preliminary examination - First results

This paper was not found in any repository; the policy of its publisher is unknown or unclear.
This paper was not found in any repository; the policy of its publisher is unknown or unclear.

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Abstract

The Stardust spacecraft exposed an aerogel and aluminum foil collector to the interstellar dust stream for a total of 195 days before its encounter with Comet P81/Wild2. We report the first results of the Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination. This is a formidable task because of the large collecting area (~1000 cm 2), the small expected statistics (a few dozen particles), the diminutive size of the captured particles (23,000 “citizen scientists” worldwide using the Stardust@home virtual microscope tools. We have confirmed this identification of secondary ejecta by the identification of Ce and Zn in these particles, but also detected evidence for extraterrestrial material from the original impactors in the form of Fe, Ni and Mg. FTIR and STXM analyses give quantitative upper limits on extraterrestrial organics, and have allowed for the quantitative evaluation of beam damage and carbon deposition during analyses. We have also identified alumina as a contaminant in the aerogel. No measurements have yet been made on the Al foil collectors.