Evidence for interstellar origin of seven dust particles collected by the Stardust spacecraft

Can you spot a speck of space dust? NASA's Stardust spacecraft has been collecting cosmic dust: Aerogel tiles and aluminum foil sat for nearly 200 days in the interstellar dust stream before returning to Earth. Citizen scientists identified most of the 71 tracks where particles were caught in the aerogel, and scanning electron microscopy revealed 25 craterlike features where particles punched through the foil. By performing trajectory and composition analysis, Westphal et al. report that seven of the particles may have an interstellar origin. These dust particles have surprisingly diverse mineral content and structure as compared with models of interstellar dust based on previous astronomical observations. Science , this issue p. 786

Evidence for interstellar origin of seven dust particles collected by the Stardust spacecraft Journal Articles