NASA's Comet-Crasher Seeks Clues to Solar System Origin
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On a quest for the frozen remains of the solar system's formation, NASA is preparing to launch its Deep Impact probe that will smash a hole in a comet 82 million miles from Earth.
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NASA is about to embark on an unprecedented asteroid-belt mission with a spacecraft aptly named Dawn. The 3 billion-mile, eight-year journey to probe the earliest stages of the solar system will begin with liftoff, planned for just after sunrise Thursday. Rain is forecast, however, and could force a delay.
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The US spacecraft Dawn, due to launch on Sunday, will take a close look at two massive asteroids to try to penetrate the mystery of our solar system&#39;s origins 4.6 billion years ago.
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And snaps pics of Mars The comet-hunting spacecraft Rosetta has sent back its first sighting of the asteroid 21-Lutetia, one of two rocky bodies it will study en route to the comet 67p Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will not get anywhere close to the rock for more than two years, but has already begun sending back preliminary data.â¦
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The first ever analyses of comet dust are in, and they stand to revolutionize our understanding of the early solar system, scientists say.
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NASA scientists said Friday they had recovered some intact materials from the wreckage of the Genesis space capsule that crashed this week and were hopeful that the mission to gather solar atoms could be salvaged.    "We should be able to meet many, if not all, of our science goals," said physicist Roger C...
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Scientists with tweezers picked through the twisted wreckage of a space capsule that crash-landed on Earth, hoping that microscopic clues to the evolution of the solar system weren&#39;t completely lost in Utah&#39;s salt flats.
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NASA SCIENTISTS are poised to blast a hole in a faraway comet to get a look at its innards. It&#39;s an innovative feat of scientific daring, but why not take a second shot at NASA itself?
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In this artist&#39;s concept released by NASA, a ring of dusty debris is seen around a star. NASA&#39;s Spitzer Space Telescope found rings of dust around planet-bearing stars, an important confirmation of theories
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NASA's comet-busting spacecraft is on its way to rendezvous with another comet in an extended mission that will also hunt for Earth-sized planets around a cluster of stars. The Deep Impact probe zipped past Earth Monday, the first of three flybys designed to use the planet's gravity to hurtle the spacecraft toward comet Hartley 2 for a 2010 meeting.
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An asteroid with a wild orbit is about to zoom by our planet. Plus: Solving the mystery of the Pioneer anomaly could take decades.... A biologist finds a chunk of space shuttle Columbia. By Amit Asaravala.
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Monday's flyby, the first visit in 33 years, is expected to render new images and data that can shed light on the origins of the solar system.
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The high-speed impact will wallop the pickle-shaped comet Tempel 1 with energy equivalent to 4.8 tons of TNT, said Michael A&#39;Hearn, another university astronomer and principal investigator on the $311 million mission.
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Optimistic scientists on Thursday plucked dirt and mud from a mangled capsule which crashed in the Utah desert, hoping to find enough solar dust to yield clues about the dawn of the planetary system.
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Collisions between comets may be kicking up copious amounts of dust observed around a dead star.
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In a dramatic ending that marks a beginning in scientific research, NASA's Genesis spacecraft is set to swing by Earth and jettison a sample return capsule filled with particles of the Sun that may ultimately tell us more about the genesis of our solar system.
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NASA is wrestling with a potentially dangerous problem in a spacecraft that has not even been built yet.