Which interstellar track will be extracted first?

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the moon
Posts: 177
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2006 12:34 am

Which interstellar track will be extracted first?

Post by the moon »

Hey everyone, long time no see. Well I've been around but nothing was really happening so I tuned out for a while. But now they are finally extracting real tracks! IMO the most important and exciting step since the ship passed thru the interstellar particles in space.

It's good to see they are getting the high angle tracks out smoothly, or as smoothly as things can go at that microscopic level.

So now the question on everyone's mind is, which IS candidate track will be the first to be extracted after the practice with high angled ones is done? Have they mentioned it before? Maybe I missed it.

It would be fun to know because then we can all look at the movie and then I can say, ahh there's no way that's a track because... and then the optimist will say, it's obviously a track because... and the politically correct guy will say, this is a very interesting project and I look forward to seeing the results of...

Good times.
fjgiie
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Which First

Post by fjgiie »

Hi the moon,

This is the one I been pushing. It's near the top of this list. Also they could pick a named one from the list of the current interstellar dust possibilities like Astrum Pulvis 0001, Zander, Antonella Campanile or Hope.

:) fjg

ps: "We'll move on to the interstellar candidate tracks when we gain more experience in this" Westphal said.
From THE PLANETARY SOCIETY
the moon
Posts: 177
Joined: Thu Aug 03, 2006 12:34 am

Post by the moon »

I'd push for this one
http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ... =5503742V1
It's near the bottom of every list :cry:
It's the only one I've ever seen where something extends straight down from the surface though.

I wonder how much they examine the tracks again before they extract them. I guess they don't have the original microscope they took the pictures with available now, but they must have some way to recheck the track before they try to cut it right? Or are they working blindly off the coordinates until they cut a piece out and can put it under an ordinary microscope?
greuti
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Location: Switzerland

Post by greuti »

Yeah, it is an exciting step! Thanks to Bryan for the detailed updates.

Another favorite to be the first could be http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ... =4938343V1

I wonder too, but don't think they are working blindly. The microscope they are using for the cutouts could be good enough to determine the whole track before. And I think it have to prerecord exactly all coordinates for the cutout.
jsmaje
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Location: Manchester UK

Post by jsmaje »

I just want to add my compliments to the team for this first extraction and for keeping us up-to-date (even when things have temporarily gone wrong) - it makes a big difference to participants' interest in continuing to contribute to the project.

If only I felt I'd yet found anything original like that and worthy of such further investigation (whether interplanetary/interstellar, HAT/LAT, or whatever).
bmendez
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Post by bmendez »

Hi All,

I'm not sure what the first IS candidate extracted will be. I'm not sure if Andrew and the others are sure yet either. I'm thinking it will probably depend a little on where on the tray it is located.

Anna has a cool map of where all of the candidates and alpha list movies are located on the tray. She's still working out some bugs with it, but hopefully soon we can put it up on the website.

Oh, and yes, they do use a microscope during extraction. We're working on putting together a movie of one of the recent extractions. It's pretty cool, I'm sure you all will get a kick out of it.

-Bryan
"I am made from the dust of the stars, and the oceans flow in my veins"
- RUSH
greuti
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Post by greuti »

Great (finally :) ) a movie! Will the complete movie be for public and... could it even be broadcasting on NASA TV?! In the meantime NASA TV is available on the internet in full screen and TV quality (1200kbit stream and even more by using Microsoft Silverlight).

<"Anna has a cool map of where all of the candidates and alpha list movies are located on the tray... ">
Nice, now it would be cool (in some way) when someone could manage after all to find and link the photos of the entire tiles from the interstellar tray as mentioned here.
jsmaje
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Location: Manchester UK

Post by jsmaje »

Thanks greuti for referencing your old thread of April 2007, and agree with what you say about how photo series or (if feasible) movies can add to our interest and understanding.

Personally, I'm still waiting for even a single response from the team to my unanswered questions at the end of your thread on April 4th, about aerogel artefacts. Even a 'Don't know' or 'Not worth caring about' response would have been (and would still be) better than the total silence for almost a year so far. :cry:
bmendez
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Post by bmendez »

greuti and John,

I have recently learned that no level 1 photodocumentation of the aerogel has been done, though NASA still really wants to do it. The team here apparently feels that it isn't really necessary since we have the high resolution scans of the entire collector.

And as for whether the artifacts we see in the aerogel are typical is a hard question. I certainly don't know a straight yes or no answer. I can say that movies taken of the flight spare have been used as blank CMs and they have a very similar appearance to the actual collector. You'll also notice some similar artifacts in the aerogel that was used for the tutorial movies. Some of the aerogel was flown aboard Mir, while some was just placed in a lab in germany.

Another thing to note is that from tile to tile there appear to be variations. One of the things Anna's map shows is that a few tiles have an unusually high number of alpha list movies (most of which are likely inclusions). So the batch of aerogel that went into making those tiles was probably not as "pure" as the other tiles.

-Bryan
"I am made from the dust of the stars, and the oceans flow in my veins"
- RUSH
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