PIA02189: Slice of Comet Dust

Mission: Stardust Spacecraft: Stardust Product Size: 720 samples x 540 lines Produced By: University of California Berkeley Full-Res TIFF: PIA02189.tif (1.168 MB) Full-Res JPEG: PIA02189.jpg (39 kB)

Original Caption Released with Image: This image illustrates one of several ways scientists have begun extracting comet particles from the Stardust spacecraft's collector. First, a particle and its track are cut out of the collector material, called aerogel, in a wedge-shaped slice called a keystone. A specialized silicon pickle fork is then used to remove the keystone from the remaining aerogel for further analysis. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of California, Berkeley