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Science 15 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5806, pp. 1711 - 1716
DOI: 10.1126/science.1135840
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Research Articles

Comet 81P/Wild 2 Under a Microscope

Don Brownlee,1* Peter Tsou,2 Jérôme Aléon,3,4 Conel M. O'D. Alexander,5 Tohru Araki,6 Sasa Bajt,7 Giuseppe A. Baratta,8 Ron Bastien,9 Phil Bland,10,11 Pierre Bleuet,12 Janet Borg,13 John P. Bradley,14 Adrian Brearley,15 F. Brenker,16 Sean Brennan,17 John C. Bridges,18 Nigel D. Browning,19,20 John R. Brucato,21 E. Bullock,22 Mark J. Burchell,23 Henner Busemann,5 Anna Butterworth,24 Marc Chaussidon,25 Allan Cheuvront,26 Miaofang Chi,14 Mark J. Cintala,27 B. C. Clark,26 Simon J. Clemett,28 George Cody,29 Luigi Colangeli,21 George Cooper,30 Patrick Cordier,31 C. Daghlian,32 Zurong Dai,14 Louis D'Hendecourt,13 Zahia Djouadi,13 Gerardo Dominguez,33 Tom Duxbury,2 Jason P. Dworkin,34 Denton S. Ebel,35 Thanasis E. Economou,36 Sirine Fakra,37 Sam A. J. Fairey,38 Stewart Fallon,14 Gianluca Ferrini,39 T. Ferroir,40 Holger Fleckenstein,41 Christine Floss,42 George Flynn,43 Ian A. Franchi,44 Marc Fries,29 Z. Gainsforth,24 J.-P. Gallien,45 Matt Genge,46 Mary K. Gilles,47 Philipe Gillet,40 Jamie Gilmour,48 Daniel P. Glavin,34 Matthieu Gounelle,49,10 Monica M. Grady,18 Giles A. Graham,14 P. G. Grant,14 Simon F. Green,18 Faustine Grossemy,13 Lawrence Grossman,36,50 Jeffrey N. Grossman,51 Yunbin Guan,52 Kenji Hagiya,10 Ralph Harvey,53 Philipp Heck,54 Gregory F. Herzog,55 Peter Hoppe,54 Friedrich Hörz,56 Joachim Huth,54 Ian D. Hutcheon,4 Konstantin Ignatyev,57 Hope Ishii,14 Motoo Ito,58 Damien Jacob,59 Chris Jacobsen,60 Stein Jacobsen,61 Steven Jones,2 David Joswiak,1 Amy Jurewicz,62 Anton T. Kearsley,10 Lindsay P. Keller,56 H. Khodja,47 A.L. David Kilcoyne,37,47 Jochen Kissel,63 Alexander Krot,64 Falko Langenhorst,65 Antonio Lanzirotti,66 Loan Le,67 Laurie A. Leshin,68 J. Leitner,69 L. Lemelle,40 Hugues Leroux,70 Ming-Chang Liu,71 K. Luening,17 Ian Lyon,48 Glen MacPherson,22 Matthew A. Marcus,37 Kuljeet Marhas,72 Bernard Marty,73 Graciela Matrajt,1 Kevin McKeegan,71 Anders Meibom,48 Vito Mennella,74 Keiko Messenger,9 Scott Messenger,58 Takashi Mikouchi,75 Smail Mostefaoui,76 Tomoki Nakamura,77 T. Nakano,78 M. Newville,66 Larry R. Nittler,5 Ichiro Ohnishi,79 Kazumasa Ohsumi,80 Kyoko Okudaira,81 Dimitri A. Papanastassiou,82 Russ Palma,83,84 Maria E. Palumbo,8 Robert O. Pepin,84 David Perkins,26 Murielle Perronnet,56 P. Pianetta,57 William Rao,85 Frans J. M. Rietmeijer,15 François Robert,49 D. Rost,22 Alessandra Rotundi,86 Robert Ryan,2 Scott A. Sandford,87 Craig S. Schwandt,13 Thomas H. See,88 Dennis Schlutter,83 J. Sheffield-Parker,89 Alexandre Simionovici,54 Steven Simon,50 I. Sitnitsky,90 Christopher J. Snead,24 Maegan K. Spencer,96 Frank J. Stadermann,42 Andrew Steele,29 Thomas Stephan,69 Rhonda Stroud,89 Jean Susini,14 S. R. Sutton,50,66 Y. Suzuki,91 Mitra Taheri,87 Susan Taylor,92 Nick Teslich,14 Kazu Tomeoka,77 Naotaka Tomioka,77 Alice Toppani,3,14 Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez,93,94 David Troadec,68 Akira Tsuchiyama,95 Anthony J. Tuzzolino,34 Tolek Tyliszczak,35,45 K. Uesugi,96 Michael Velbel,97 Joe Vellenga,26 E. Vicenzi,22 L. Vincze,98 Jack Warren,9 Iris Weber,69 Mike Weisberg,99 Andrew J. Westphal,24 Sue Wirick,41 Diane Wooden,87 Brigitte Wopenka,72,100 Penelope Wozniakiewicz,10 Ian Wright,18 Hikaru Yabuta,29 Hajime Yano,81 Edward D. Young,71 Richard N. Zare,96 Thomas Zega,81 Karen Ziegler,71 Laurent Zimmerman,25 Ernst Zinner,42 Michael Zolensky56

The Stardust spacecraft collected thousands of particles from comet 81P/Wild 2 and returned them to Earth for laboratory study. The preliminary examination of these samples shows that the nonvolatile portion of the comet is an unequilibrated assortment of materials that have both presolar and solar system origin. The comet contains an abundance of silicate grains that are much larger than predictions of interstellar grain models, and many of these are high-temperature minerals that appear to have formed in the inner regions of the solar nebula. Their presence in a comet proves that the formation of the solar system included mixing on the grandest scales.

1 Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA 91109–8099, USA.
3 Centre de Spectrometrie Nucleaire et de Spectrometrie de Masse, Bat 104, 91405 Orsay Campus, France.
4 Glenn T. Seaborg Institute, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
5 Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution, Washington, DC 20015–1305, USA.
6 Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
7 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, L-210, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
8 Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Via Santa Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy.
9 Engineering Science Contract Group, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
10 Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
11 Impact and Astromaterials Research Centre, Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
12 European Synchrotron Research Facility, Grenoble, France.
13 Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Campus, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
14 Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
15 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, MSC 03-2040, Albuquerque, NM 87131–0001, USA.
16 Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universitat, Frankfurt, Germany.
17 Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
18 Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK.
19 Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California–Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
20 Materials Science and Technology Division, Chemistry and Materials Science Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
21 INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Via Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy.
22 Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA.
23 School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NH, UK.
24 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720–7450, USA.
25 Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques, 15 rue Notre Dame des Pauvres, BP 20, 54501 Vandoeuvre lès Nancy, France.
26 Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Littleton, CO 80125, USA.
27 Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
28 ERC, Inc., NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058 USA.
29 Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015 USA.
30 Exobiology Branch, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA.
31 Laboratoire de Structure et Propriétés de l'Etat Solide, Bat C6, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
32 Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH03755, USA.
33 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093–0356, USA.
34 Goddard Center for Astrobiology, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
35 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY10024, USA.
36 Laboratory for Astrophysics and Space Research, Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, 933 East 56th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
37 Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720–8225, USA.
38 Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NH, UK.
39 Novaetech s.r.l., Napoli, Italy.
40 Laboratoire de Sciences de la Terre, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, 46, allee d'Italie, 69007, Lyon, France.
41 Physics and Astronomy Department, SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794–3800, USA.
42 Laboratory for Space Sciences, CB1105, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63160–4899, USA.
43 Department of Physics, SUNY, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, USA.
44 Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK.
45 Laboratoire Pierre Süe, CEA-Saclay 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France.
46 Impact and Astromaterials Research Centre, Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
47 Chemical Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720–8225, USA.
48 School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
49 Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire d'Etude de la Matiere Extraterrestre, USM 0205 (LEME), Case Postale 52, 57, rue Cuvier, 75005 Paris, France.
50 Department of the Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, 5734 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
51 United States Geological Survey, 954 National Center, Reston, VA 20192, USA.
52 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
53 Geology Department, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
54 Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Particle Chemistry Department, P.O. Box 3060, 55020 Mainz, Germany.
55 Rutgers University, Piscataway NJ, USA.
56 Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas 77058, USA.
57 Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA94025, USA.
58 Robert M. Walker Laboratory for Space Science, Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
59 Laboratoire de Structure et Propriétés de l'Etat Solide, Bat C6, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
60 Physics and Astronomy Department, SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794–3800, USA.
61 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
62 Center for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University, m/c 1404, Tempe AZ 85287, USA.
63 Max Planck Institut for Solar System Research, Max-Planck-Strasse 2, 37191Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.
64 Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
65 Institute of Geosciences, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Burgweg 11, D-07749 Jena, Germany.
66 Center for Advanced Radiation Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
67 Jacobs Sverdrup, ESCG, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
68 Sciences and Exploration Directorate, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
69 Institut für Planetologie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany.
70 Université Lille, Lille, France.
71 Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1567, USA.
72 McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
73 Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques, 15 rue Notre Dame des Pauvres, BP 20, 54501 Vandoeuvre lès Nancy, France.
74 INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Via Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy.
75 Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
76 Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire d'Etude de la Matiere Extraterrestre, 57 rue Cuvier, 75005, Paris, France.
77 Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
78 Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Geological Survey of Japan, Ibaragi, Japan.
79 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kobe University, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.
80 Institute of Materials Structure Science, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, 305, Japan.
81 Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, 229-8510, Japan.
82 Science Division, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
83 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Minnesota State University, 141 Trafton Science Center N, Mankato, MN 56001, USA.
84 School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
85 Savannah River Ecology Lab, Aiken, SC 29801, USA.
86 Dip. Scienze Applicate, Università degli Studi di Parthenope, Napoli, Italy.
87 Astrophysics Branch, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA.
88 Engineering Science Contract/Barrios Technology, Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science/Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas 77258–8447, USA.
89 U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA.
90 State University of New York, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, USA.
91 Japan Synchrotron Radiation Institute, Hyougo, Japan.
92 Engineer Research and Development Center, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
93 Institute of Space Sciences Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, CSIC, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
94 Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Ed. Nexus, Gran Capità, 2-4, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
95 Department of Earth and Space Science, Osaka University, 1-1 Machikaneyamacho, Toyonaka, 560-0043, Japan.
96 Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305–5080, USA.
97 Department of Geological Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824–1115, USA.
98 Ghent Univ, Ghent, Belgium.
99 Physical Sciences, Kingsborough Community College (CUNY), Brooklyn, NY 11235, USA.
100 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: brownlee{at}astro.washington.edu

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