Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato
Abstract
Since comets originated during the formation of the solar system, the processes of solar system formation can be better understood through compositional analysis of cometary material. A low density, silicon-based substance called aerogel was used by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft to collect coma samples from comet Wild 2. Aerogel not from the spacecraft (“non-flight”) was investigated to determine the possibility of measuring noble gases in Stardust samples. Gas evolved from heated, non-flight aerogel was measured initially using a residual gas analyzer, then a high-sensitivity massspectrometer. Levels of helium and neon isotopes observed from both instruments were sufficiently low that noble gases from Stardust samples were measured using the same technique. Intrinsic helium and neon was not identified in flight aerogel without apparent cometary material. Helium and neon were detected above background in flight samples containing impact particle tracks
