Stardust

Stardust was a NASA spacecraft designed to return comet material to Earth.[1]

History

The Stardust spacecraft left Earth on February 7, 1999.[1] One of the craft's three science packages was a European dust-analysing instrument supplied by a German Max Planck institute.[2]

Findings

Stardust flew past comet Wild 2 in January 2004.[1] Its return capsule landed in Utah in January 2006 with dust from comet Wild 2.[1] Returned samples showed that cold, ice-rich comets can include material formed at high temperatures.[3]

Current status

An extended phase sent Stardust past comet Tempel 1 in February 2011.[1] Operations of the spacecraft came to an end in March 2011.[1]

Sources

  1. Stardust / Stardust NExT | NASA Science. Licence: facts-only (Track B), no text or images reused. Attribution: NASA.
  2. Comet dust brought back to Earth: paving the way for Rosetta | ESA. Licence: facts-only (Track B), no text reused. Attribution: European Space Agency.
  3. Stardust Capsule | Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Licence: facts-only (Track B), no text or images reused. Attribution: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Evidence as of 2026-11-01.