Can a person physically feel the influence of interstellar space without leaving his main place of existence? It turns out that interstellar particles, like rain, fall into our solar system. Scientists, having discovered this phenomenon, gave it a very great importance for scientific progress. Spacecraft have already collected samples. Even one of them has already returned to Earth, so that the samples could be studied in more detail here. These heroes (of course, except for the NASA Cassini apparatus), who carried out the mission of "collecting star dust", were these fearless machines.
Ulysses was an ordinary spacecraft, specially designed to observe the Sun, as well as explore the areas above and below it. However, to get to the designated point of observation, the device had to go not straight, but a roundabout route. Ulysses was launched in October 1990 from NASA station in the United States on the Discovery shuttle. From there, a cargo container was launched and directed towards Jupiter, because the force of gravity, together with the force of the poles, help the ship to fly to orbit of Jupiter.
Slightly more than a year later, on February 8, 1992, Ulysses flew at a distance of 446,000 km (or 277,000 miles) from Jupiter. There they were found a huge amount of cosmic dust, which was updated about once a month. The dust was supposed to come from the nearest planet or its volcanic satellite. But later larger particles were discovered, moving at a different speed. This was the first case of detection of cosmic dust.
The mission of Galileo was the first long mission to Jupiter. The device left the Earth a little earlier - October 18, 1989. He also had a lot of weight so that Venus helped him gradually approach Jupiter. The path lasted until 2003. More scientists did not launch ships for this purpose into space, so as not to pollute Jupiter, as well as the Moon.
The Galileo spacecraft found many times more star dust on its way to Jupiter, confirming the presence of Ulysses. In 1998, researchers wrote an article in the journal Science, which mentioned the discovered ring of star dust around Jupiter. Based on collected samples of star dust, scientists said: dust is a combination of interplanetary and interstellar particles.
Stardust also remained aboard Delta-2 launch vehicles launched at a military air station at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The main mission of the ships was to collect some dust. As a result, one of the missiles returned from "prey" in 2006, while the other continued its exploration of comet Tempel-1 until February 2011. Scientists very much worried about the last month of the flight, because there was a high probability of a missile fuel shortage for return, but everything went well.
The analysis of the collected particles is still ongoing. Scientists managed to achieve results only in 2014. It was found that traces of interstellar particles can be divided into several types. Each species was compared with others. Samples were compared with Delta-2 and Ulysses. The origin of some particles has not been established, but for the most part they were part of the wreckage of a spacecraft, as reported by Space.com.
The Cassini spacecraft, which was launched into space in 1997 to make a passage past Venus and Earth, before it arrived at Saturn in 2004, managed to learn a lot. It is worth saying that this expanded close-up of the gas giant and its many satellites was made by Cassini. The spacecraft has not yet returned to earth. Scientists have not yet named exact dates, however, the return is scheduled for the next year after the ship flies past Saturn. This is necessary for a more accurate understanding of the structure of the planet, its internal structure. Saturn, for example, its icy satellites protect against cosmic pollution, so our ship should be more careful in this case.
Earlier this month, the Cassini spacecraft reassembled star dust samples for further analysis using embedded tools. Most of the particles collected by him are subject to the eruption of the geyser Enceladus, however, 36 of all species have a completely different origin. These particles moved much faster compared to others and followed a different trajectory of movement, as reported by NASA to journalists. Many believe that this is a clear sign of the presence of other sources of interstellar dust. However, this is just an assumption that requires accurate and reliable confirmation.
