Saturday, July 29, 2006
Saturday Sun Workshop
Saturday, and I presented at a workshop at the Space Science Lab in Berkeley. We had a good mix of teachers today, including two visiting teachers from Korea. I learned some new information myself, which is always a plus for me. I learned about a mission being conducted right now by NASA called Stardust. This mission involves a collection of 'stardust', also known as space dust, from the mission that recently impacted with a comet. The space dust has nothing to do with the comet, except that it was collected during the comet impact mission. The space dust was collected onto an array of Aerogel. Aerogel is a very lightweight material that is also very durable. Scientists think they may have collected 40 to 50 dust particles! Somewhere on the array of Aerogel are these particles. There are so many million microscopic 'movies' of the Aerogel to sift through that NASA has asked the help of the general public. You can sign up to scan Aerogel 'movies' on-line at Stardust@home. It is very cool. You must take a very brief tutorial and pass a very easy task test to register. Should you find a speck of dust, YOU can name that piece of dust. There are other benefits as well. Check it out on the web. Another plus for me, the people at U.C. Berkeley are involved in the scanning for dust.
I can't wait for Monday morning when I can register to look for space dust! Let me know if you register or if you are lucky enough to actually find a speck of dust.
By the way, this dust is the stuff that stars are made of.
| posted by feldmom at 7:42 PM
