Stardust

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, David Bowie's fifth album, was released in 1972.

A U.S. spacecraft is returning to Earth with a precious cargo of stardust that was gathered during a 4.5 billion-kilometer roundtrip journey to a distant comet. Scientists around the world will examine the material to better understand the origins of our solar system.

Scientists say they hope the stardust will confirm the long held suspicion that carbon grains from comets played a major role in the origin of life on Earth. They point out that comets are the most carbon-rich bodies in the solar system, full of organic compounds that fall to Earth all the time.

To get some of these grains, the Stardust spacecraft caught up with Wild-2 400 million kilometers from Earth, passing the icy body just 240 kilometers away. As it moved through the gas and dust surrounding the comet, it caught more than 1,000 of its particles in a tray containing a wispy fiberglass filter.

The payoff comes Sunday when the Stardust spacecraft releases its sample return capsule 110,000 kilometers from Earth. Project manager Tom Duxbury of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California says the capsule will enter the atmosphere at a record 45,000 kilometers per hour.

According to Peter Tsou, head of the NASA team that's making aerogel for the Stardust mission, the material's ability to absorb intense heat is another important quality.

We are stardust.

We are all made of stardust.

Presolar grains were isolated in primitive meteorites only 15 years ago. These grains of stardust formed in the atmospheres of evolved stars and in nova and supernova ejecta.

His [Sickert's] paint has a tangible quality; it is made not of air and star-dust but of oil and earth.