Aerogel comet particle capture experiment?

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houlahound
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some years ago it was big news when some aerogel bulk launched at the tail of a comet and bits of the comet dust got stuck in the gel. this was going to be recovered somehow and analysed.

I do not know any more about that particular experiment but it died out of the mainstream news.

anyone have any links or know the results??

oh and can you buy this stuff commercially?
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org
Key search word was stardust, thanks.
 
Drakkith said:
Aerogel? I believe you can buy it online. I found several sites selling it from a google search.

Gonna get me some of that.
 
houlahound said:
some years ago it was big news when some aerogel bulk launched at the tail of a comet and bits of the comet dust got stuck in the gel. this was going to be recovered somehow and analysed.

I do not know any more about that particular experiment but it died out of the mainstream news.

anyone have any links or know the results??

oh and can you buy this stuff commercially?

There was a Science magazine special issue on this, back in 2006: vol 314, issue 5806:
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/314/5806
All paywalled, unless you know how to get around that :)
The aerogel, however, caused some alteration to the particles as they heated up due to the rapid deceleration in the aerogel.
The recent, and no doubt forthcoming, results from the Rosetta mission to 67P should be of interest, as that craft carries its own atomic force microscope. A search in Google Scholar using the key words "rosetta; 67p; midas; giada", should throw up a few results.
There have been some posts on the Rosetta blog regarding the dust analysis, among them:
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/09/23/living-with-a-comet-a-midas-team-perspective/
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2016/08/31/imaging-tiny-comet-dust-in-3d/
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/09/giada-investigates-comets-fluffy-dust-grains/
 
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How exactly does the AFM sample get mounted in the AFM? No easy task at the best of times.

Or are you talking about a manned mission?
 
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houlahound said:
How exactly does the AFM sample get mounted in the AFM?

Or are you talking about a manned mission?

This article should explain a bit more about it than I can: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/0...-rosettas-micro-imaging-dust-analysis-system/
And also the instrument description in this paper:
GIADA: ITS STATUS AFTER THE ROSETTA CRUISE PHASE AND ON-GROUND ACTIVITY IN SUPPORT OF THE ENCOUNTER WITH COMET 67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO. Della Corte, V., et al.
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1142/S2251171713500116
 
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Well I'll be, a funnel/scoop aimed on to a wheel with microscope stages on the rim facing outwards. Fly thru some dust and it gets funnelled straight onto to stage that rotates in place for AFM tip...rinse and repeat.

Brilliant.
 
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