Scientists and engineers at the CU Boulder will soon take part in an effort to collect a bit of stardust—the tiny bits of matter that flow through the Milky Way Galaxy and were once the initial building blocks of our solar ...
Space Exploration
Jan 12, 2024
0
1
Every year, our planet encounters dust from comets and asteroids. These interplanetary dust particles pass through our atmosphere and give rise to shooting stars. Some of them reach the ground in the form of micrometeorites.
Planetary Sciences
Apr 8, 2021
2
3675
Data from the NASA spacecraft's journey to Jupiter suggests that Mars may be shedding dust into interplanetary space.
Planetary Sciences
Mar 9, 2021
16
2037
A 40-year-old enigma about ghostly magnetic fields in interplanetary space may have finally been solved by new data from a constellation of 12 satellites in near-Earth space.
Space Exploration
Feb 10, 2020
24
654
Cosmic dust is the key to the chemical evolution of stars, planets, and life itself, but its composition is not well understood, and we can't currently collect samples for analysis. A few examples have arrived on Earth as ...
Astronomy
Jan 31, 2020
1
9
Asteroids and comets appear to be a much more important supplier of organic molecules on Mars than expected. Until now, astronomers assumed that the organics on Mars mainly came from dust particles from space. Now, computer ...
Space Exploration
Mar 14, 2018
3
238
We are not used to considering dust as a valuable material – unless it comes from space. And more precisely, from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. An analysis of its dust has provided valuable information about this ...
Space Exploration
Jan 23, 2018
0
16
Life on our planet might have originated from biological particles brought to Earth in streams of space dust, a study suggests.
Astronomy
Nov 20, 2017
15
360
The appearance of small bodies in the outer solar system could be deceiving. Asteroids and dwarf planets may be camouflaged with an outer layer of material that actually comes from somewhere else.
Space Exploration
Jan 20, 2017
2
145
The solar system is a dusty environment, with trillions of cosmic dust particles left behind by comets and asteroids that orbit the sun. All this dust forms a relatively dense cloud through which the Earth travels, sweeping ...
General Physics
Sep 27, 2016
1
181
