Crashed Spacecraft Yields Data on Solar Wind

Hugh Pickens writes "After the Genesis mission spent 27 months in space gathering tiny samples from different types of solar wind, Hollywood stunt pilots swooped in with a helicopter to catch the falling capsule when it returned to earth. Unfortunately the spacecraft's parachute did not open, and the spacecraft ploughed a hole into the desert. Now scientists are starting to recover data from the salvageable pieces of Genesis. Nature Magazine reports that an analysis of isotopes of neon and argon shows that the elements of main interest to the researchers have the same isotopic signature in the solar wind as in the Sun itself. Because dirt contains relatively little neon and argon, the current Science study wasn't affected too much by contamination and the the team remains hopeful that they will be able to get results on oxygen and nitrogen isotopes from the mission."

Re:Brilliant!

[wizardforce]

argon makes up about 1% of our atmosphere while neon takes up a smaller amount of our air. though I suspect that the gas was contained enough so that had enough to sample sections that had little or no visible contamination. had there been any real significant contamination from gases in our air, it is just as likely that the gases in the samples escaped, thus there wouldn't be much to sample. in addition to that, we know the general composition of the sun which shouldn't deviate too much from the composition of soalr wind so if we find something statistically off about the oxygen/nitrogen composition then we know that it is likely that the samples were contaminated.

Re:Brilliant!

[nusuth]

in addition to that, we know the general composition of the sun which shouldn't deviate too much from the composition of soalr wind so if we find something statistically off about the oxygen/nitrogen composition then we know that it is likely that the samples were contaminated.

In other words, if they find only what they expect (or want) to find, they can conclude that the samples are valid? Or, conversely, if they find something that is different than their theories predict, they can conclude that the samples must be contaminated?

Obviously, we also know the composition of the atmosphere. If the isotope ratios are different from solar wind and they are actually more similar to terrestrial sources, the scientists might conclude the samples are contaminated while they are not. In all other cases, the analysis will produce correct results.

Re:Argon

[Dishevel]

From what I remember about the original experiment. The colector plates that were exposed to the solar wind used layers to trap the solar wind particles. They were driven deep into the samples by the speed of the solar wind. Argon while present in the earths atmosphere is not as told by the researchers in the soil. Exposer to the air itself wont much contaminate the samples as there is no way to DRIVE the gas particles into the sample medium.