July 31, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Sun catcher to bring back extraterrestrial samples

LONDON, July 31, Graphic News: The U.S. space agency NASA is going after its first extraterrestrial samples since the Apollo moon landings, but this time, instead of lunar rocks, the prize will be atoms from the sun blasted into space on the solar wind.

The robot spacecraft, Genesis, will catch a few micrograms of solar particles and return its sample to earth -- after a three-year round-trip mission -- in April 2004.

The sample will be preserved in a special laboratory to be studied by researchers for decades to come. Scientists hope that the particles will explain the composition of the Sun, revealing how gas and dust mixed to form planets at the dawn of our solar system. 

ÒThis mission will be the Rosetta Stone of planetary science data,Ó said Chester Sasaki, project manager at NasaÕs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

 ÒThe samples will show us the composition of the original solar nebula that formed the planets, asteroids, comets and the Sun,Ó said Sasaki.

Scientists believe the solar system began as a swirling cloud of dust and gas called the solar nebula. More than four billion years ago it collapsed upon itself to form the Sun and its nine planets.

Solar wind particles, which originate from the SunÕs outer layers and stream through space at more than two million miles an hour, are thought to reflect the composition of this original solar nebula.
/ENDS
Sources: NASA, JPL, Associated Press