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Impact features on Stardust: Implications for
comet 81P/Wild 2 dust.
Hörz F., Bastien R., Borg J., Bradley J. P., Bridges
J. C., Brownlee D. E., Burchell M. J., Chi M., Cintala M.
J., Dai Z. R., Djouadi Z., Dominguez G., Economou T. E.,
Fairey S. A. J., Floss C., Franchi I. A., Graham G. A.,
Green S. F., Heck P., Hoppe P., Huth J., Ishii H., Kearsley
A. T., Kissel J., Leitner J., Leroux H., Marhas K.,
Messenger K., Schwandt C. S., See T. H., Snead C.,
Stadermann F. J., Stephan T., Stroud R., Teslich N.,
Trigo-Rodriguez J. M., Tuzzolino A. J., Troadec D., Tsou P.,
Warren J., Westphal A., Wozniakiewicz P., Wright I., and
Zinner E. (2006)
Science 314, 1716-1719.
doi:10.1126/science.1135705
ABSTRACT
Particles emanating from comet 81P/Wild 2 collided with
the Stardust spacecraft at 6.1 kilometers per second,
producing hypervelocity impact features on the collector
surfaces that were returned to Earth. The morphologies of
these surprisingly diverse features were created by
particles varying from dense mineral grains to loosely
bound, polymineralic aggregates ranging from tens of
nanometers to hundreds of micrometers in size. The
cumulative size distribution of Wild 2 dust is shallower
than that of comet Halley, yet steeper than that of comet
Grigg-Skjellerup.
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