Comet Wild's 2 Critters?, page

In searching for info on Comet Wild 2, I came across this image in Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 85, Issue 4, p. 41-42, Jan 22, 2007.

cen.acs.org...

The caption reads: "Happy Trails
Particles of dust from comet Wild 2 embedded themselves in the Stardust spacecraft's aerogel collectors forming these tracks. Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center."

I need some expert to tell me why I'm seeing little creatures here rather than dust particles.

I should add that the "dust" captured from the coma of that comet contained organic materials according to the article, but I would think not to the extent of explaining these two critters! I assume there was a mixup with images at some point, or perhaps the return capsule was damaged as it landed in Utah and was contaminated with earthly life forms?

reply to post by Aliensun

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Two virtually idential objects with twin, seemingly segmented tail-like structures with the appearance of having appendages and with a typical, body-like shape of a small organism is a NTSHFMA?

I'm not saying that they are life forms, but based on the image alone, they could be,or it could have been a image mixup which would be the easy answer.

And it is on that score that I make the post. Your dismissive opinions on the topic are certainly not worth anymore than my own suggestion that they look like critters. If you have dust data or molecule images that can match these please supply such. Otherwise, your mere opinions have no weight.

Very little is actually know about comets, even today with several missions to their number, most comet theories are mere supposition based on old ideas. The more data the scientist acquire the less they admit to knowing and the more puzzlement they have about the strange things. Isn't that peculiar? Comets are rightly seen as the UFO of outer space.

reply to post by Aliensun

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Those are voids created in the jelly as the dust particles entered from the top and travelled down. The ends of the "tails" is where those particles stopped. It's similar to what bullets do to the ballistic jelly:

reply to post by wildespace

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Possible parasites or two virus'. Carl Sagan indicated that. Comets may do more damage by leaving toxic stuff in our atmosphere than by close shaves. We had a rum do after Comet Shoemaker-levy or whatever around 1997, after which SARS arrived, then bird 'flu. These two seem to have cleared up, but we might have problems when we go through Comet ISO's tail in Jan 2014.

Wildespace is right

Comet Dust

A tiny bit of aerogel contains a carrot-shaped track carved by comet dust particles, as seen in this cross-section. The particles themselves are at the very tips of the "carrot."

But, yeah, critters at first glance.

reply to post by mclinking

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Of course, you're right, Mclinking. Twins, eh! Fascinating. And they do look insect-like. To think, all life started from chunks of these cosmic travellers.
Yet they often carry death as well. I don't like the look of these 2 evil-looking 'prawns'.

Originally posted by mclinking
reply to post by mclinking

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Of course, you're right, Mclinking. Twins, eh! Fascinating. And they do look insect-like. To think, all life started from chunks of these cosmic travellers.
Yet they often carry death as well. I don't like the look of these 2 evil-looking 'prawns'.

First of all, did you just respond to yourself, agreeing with yourself by saying "Of course you're right"? If so, that's really strange.


Secondly (and more to the point), as has been shown in this thread already, those "prawn-like" shapes (I called them "tadpole-like") are NOT the objects captured by the aerogel. those prawn-like shapes are simply the holes/tracks in the gel made by the speeding dust as the dust was captured by the gel.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

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Absolute rubbish.
The NASA photo says 'dust particles from the comet'. Can't you read properly?

reply to post by mclinking

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Cant YOU read properly?

NASA photo also say's "FORMING THESE TRACKS"

Originally posted by mclinking
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

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Absolute rubbish.
The NASA photo says 'dust particles from the comet'. Can't you read properly?

Yes -- the dust particles are visible in that image (as described in the caption), and the trails in the aerogel are also visible in that image (as described in the caption).



A post above by 'Pauligirl' includes another article that shows more of this dust and the trails left in the aerogel by this dust (they described the trails as "carrot-shaped" in their article):

Originally posted by Pauligirl
Wildespace is right

Comet Dust

A tiny bit of aerogel contains a carrot-shaped track carved by comet dust particles, as seen in this cross-section. The particles themselves are at the very tips of the "carrot."

But, yeah, critters at first glance.

Originally posted by Kr0nZ
reply to post by mclinking

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Cant YOU read properly?

NASA photo also say's "FORMING THESE TRACKS"

edit on 19/2/13 by Kr0nZ because: (no reason given)

I'm talking about the dust particles from the comet. I don't care two figs about the tracks, just find them odd. Dust is dodgy, ask your wife.

Originally posted by mclinking

Originally posted by Kr0nZ
reply to post by mclinking

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Cant YOU read properly?

NASA photo also say's "FORMING THESE TRACKS"

edit on 19/2/13 by Kr0nZ because: (no reason given)

I'm talking about the dust particles from the comet. I don't care two figs about the tracks, just find them odd. Dust is dodgy, ask your wife.

But the dust doesn't look like prawns or 'insect-like", which is the way you described them before. However, the tracks look insect-like or prawn-like.

Consider this post by you:

Originally posted by mclinking
...And they do look insect-like. To think, all life started from chunks of these cosmic travellers.
Yet they often carry death as well. I don't like the look of these 2 evil-looking 'prawns'.

Those descriptions by you are the reasons why I assume you were talking about those trails in the aerogel.

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