Stardust@home

All - since the excitement seems to be dying down for some - I'd like to collect any Stardust images of what looks like tiny spiders or mites. I've been doing some reading - mites can "balloon" up to 3000 meters on strands of silk they spin. They've been found as far as the South Pole. Who...

Some of the posting titles sound a bit down (When will this be fun, etc.). Don't lose hope - When Mariner took the first pictures of Mars about 40 years ago, the scientists saw only craters - they missed all the water features. Scientists had continued to miss the water on Mars until a few weeks ago...

For Jerpau - another spider (an old one - sorry if you already have it - I haven't checked the forum in months.

Good Luck

http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ... =4020226V1

Were the "spiders" explained yet? Are they illusions made by cracks? Spiders or dust mites in the "clean room" before takeoff? Spiders in the "clean room" after return? when being examined? It seems like a useful piece of info whatever they turn out to be. We're all so ...

Or maybe a Dust Mite - if it really is any kind of bug - this is closer to the right size: Dust mites are only about 100 microns long (0.1 mm), far too small to be seen by the naked eye. They are eight legged creates related to spiders and ticks. from (and see the picture of a live one - it does loo...

That last post is interesting. It does look like a bug - but I think the size is too small. I hope the Stardust team or a microbiologist comments - if it was a bug, even one that accidently hitched a ride for years in space would be interesting.

Good Luck!

Those small black dots that come into focus below the surface are being classified by Stardust as inclusions. example: Movie 9544689V1 130 34 Not Extraterrestrial inclusions I don't know whether "inclusions" means an air gap, or some sort of matter (dust or spore) was in the aerogel from m...

What is that thing in the last post? It looks too big for a spore. Anything bigger would be called "Road Kill"

I didn't mean to imply looking for anything different than what you're taught! I don't even know if a spore - if present - could survive the impact with the aerogel (maybe the moderator could comment).

Good Luck!

NewScientist carried this article. I'm sure there's an unimaginably small chance of finding a bacterial spore, but....


http://www.newscientistspace.com/articl ... 5.300.html

Good Luck!