SEVEN years and five billion kilometres. That’s how long and how far NASA’s Stardust spacecraft has travelled to gather a smidgen of comet dust – and now it is coming home.
During the early hours of 15 January, Stardust will drop a capsule containing the precious cargo over the US state of Utah. Barring any unforeseen mishaps, the dust will give us our first close look at the material that built the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
“If this works, there will be a huge queue of people with their hands up wanting bits of this cometary material,” says David Hughes, a comet specialist at the…
