Stardust was a NASA space probe designed to collect dust from the coma of a comet and to bring it back to Earth. After launch, the craft travelled through the inner solar system, collecting samples of interstellar dust streaming through the solar system on the way. In 2004 it flew through the coma of comet Wild 2, within a few hundred kilometres of the nucleus, taking images and trapping particles in a tray of aerogel, an extremely light solid material. A capsule carrying the samples parachuted to the Utah desert in 2006. The returned dust contained minerals formed at high temperatures and organic molecules. The spacecraft was then sent to comet Tempel 1.
Before and after
- 1999The Vostok ice core reveals 420,000 years of climate history
- 3 January 1999Launch of Mars Polar Lander
- from 10 January 1999 to 10 June 2007Premiere of The Sopranos
- from 31 January 1999 to 14 February 2002Premiere of Family Guy
- 7 February 1999Launch of Stardust
- 3 March 1999Release of GNOME
- 7 March 1999Death of Stanley Kubrick
- from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
- from 28 March 1999 to 29 July 2025Premiere of Futurama
More in Universe & space
- 22 June 1978Discovery of Charon
- 20 January 1986Discovery of Ophelia
- 24 April 1990Launch of Hubble Space Telescope
- 1998Supernovae show that cosmic expansion is accelerating
- 20 November 1998Launch of International Space Station
- 10 April 2019The first image of a black hole
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.