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PIA03186: Particle Tracks in Aerogel
In an experiment using a special air gun, particles are shot into aerogel at high velocities. Closeup of particles leaving a carrot-shaped trail in the aerogel are shown here. Aerogel was used on NASA's Stardust spacecraft.
 Mission:  Stardust 
 Spacecraft:  Stardust
 Product Size:  601 x 900 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA03186.tif (1.625 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA03186.jpg (44.44 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

In an experiment using a special air gun, particles are shot into aerogel at high velocities. Closeup of particles that have been captured in aerogel are shown here. The particles leave a carrot-shaped trail in the aerogel. Aerogel was used on the Stardust spacecraft to capture comet particles from Comet Wild 2.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
2005-11-03