Stardust returns

The NASA mission Stardust is slated to return to Earth on Sunday, Jan. 15, at approximately 2:12 a.m PST in Utah. The cool thing about Stardust is that is used aerogel to capture particles from both a comet and interplanetary dust particles (IDPs). Aerogel, as you see here, is the least dense substance every created. Think of it like super-fluffy jello - it's over 98% empty space.

From a science standpoint, the potential results are exciting because these returned materials represent the building blocks of the solar system. Hopefully, the recovery will go smoother than the Genesis mission, which crash-landed in the desert when it's parachute failed to open. Something most media outlets have failed to report, however, it that ~85% of the sample returned by Genesis was eventually recovered. Contamination is an issue, but a remarkably large portion of the payload survived the rough ride home. I think NASA needs to do better informing the public that although the mission looked like a spectacular failure, many of the science objectives will most likely be met.