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Images: Dust Grains from Interstellar Space

By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer | August 14, 2014 06:20pm ET
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Interstellar visitors

Interstellar visitors

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

A NASA spacecraft has captured dust particles that scientists believe may come from interstellar space. Above: a false color image of diffraction pattern from one of the particles, called Orion.

Read full story

Beaming at dust

Beaming at dust

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

Researchers used the Advanced Light Source at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California, to analyze the dust particles that were captured by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.

Read full story

Stardust lab

Stardust lab

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

The specks could provide clues about the origin and evolution of interstellar dust that couldn't be found through astronomical observations, researchers say. Above: a day in the Stardust Lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Read full story

X-rayed dust

X-rayed dust

Credit: Anna Butterworth

The researchers created this X-ray fluorescence map of the first interstellar dust candidate, Orion. Red is aluminum, green is iron, blue is magnesium.

Read full story

The life of Orion

The life of Orion

Credit: NASA/JSC/(D. Frank)

Additional tests must be done to confirm the particles' origin, but the evidence suggests that seven specks of dust gathered by NASA's Stardust spacecraft came from outside the solar system. Above: A noptical microscope image of Orion only shortly after it was removed from the spacecraft's dust collector.

Read full story

Keystone

Keystone

Credit: Andrew Westphal

A picokeystone extracted from NASA's Stardust spacecraft interstellar dust collector at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Read full story

Cutting for stone

Cutting for stone

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

A keystoning apparatus cuts a picokeystone out of the dust collector.

Read full story

Keystone closeup

Keystone closeup

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

A keystoning apparatus cuts a picokeystone out of the dust collector.

Read full story

Dust crater

Dust crater

Credit: Rhonda Stroud, Naval Research Laboratory

A scanning electron microscope view of one of the tiny craters on a NASA probe thought to be from the impact of interstellar dust. The crater is about 280 nanometers across.

Read full story
Author Bio
Tanya Lewis
Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer

Tanya was a staff writer for Live Science from 2013 to 2015, covering a wide array of topics, ranging from neuroscience to robotics to strange/cute animals. She received a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering from Brown University. She has previously written for Science News, Wired, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, the radio show Big Picture Science and other places. Tanya has lived on a tropical island, witnessed volcanic eruptions and flown in zero gravity (without losing her lunch!). To find out what her latest project is, you can visit her website.

Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer on
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Interstellar visitors

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

A NASA spacecraft has captured dust particles that scientists believe may come from interstellar space. Above: a false color image of diffraction pattern from one of the particles, called Orion.

Read full story

Beaming at dust

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

Researchers used the Advanced Light Source at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California, to analyze the dust particles that were captured by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.

Read full story

Stardust lab

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

The specks could provide clues about the origin and evolution of interstellar dust that couldn't be found through astronomical observations, researchers say. Above: a day in the Stardust Lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Read full story

X-rayed dust

Credit: Anna Butterworth

The researchers created this X-ray fluorescence map of the first interstellar dust candidate, Orion. Red is aluminum, green is iron, blue is magnesium.

Read full story

The life of Orion

Credit: NASA/JSC/(D. Frank)

Additional tests must be done to confirm the particles' origin, but the evidence suggests that seven specks of dust gathered by NASA's Stardust spacecraft came from outside the solar system. Above: A noptical microscope image of Orion only shortly after it was removed from the spacecraft's dust collector.

Read full story

Keystone

Credit: Andrew Westphal

A picokeystone extracted from NASA's Stardust spacecraft interstellar dust collector at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Read full story

Cutting for stone

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

A keystoning apparatus cuts a picokeystone out of the dust collector.

Read full story

Keystone closeup

Credit: Zack Gainsforth

A keystoning apparatus cuts a picokeystone out of the dust collector.

Read full story

Dust crater

Credit: Rhonda Stroud, Naval Research Laboratory

A scanning electron microscope view of one of the tiny craters on a NASA probe thought to be from the impact of interstellar dust. The crater is about 280 nanometers across.

Read full story

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