# NASA Stardust: "interstellar" dust?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-stardust-interstellar-dust/340100>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 15, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-stardust-interstellar-dust/340100 "2006-01-15T17:24:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-stardust-interstellar-dust/340100/1 "2006-01-15T17:24:58Z")

</div>

Did [NASA’s Stardust mission](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/main/index.html) really bring back _interstellar_ dust? What is the justification for calling the particles interstellar when the probe stayed well within the solar system. Interplanetary dust would seem to be a better descriptor.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-stardust-interstellar-dust/340100/2 "2006-01-15T18:02:31Z")

</div>

Given that comets can come from who knows where (Oort Cloud, Kuiper Belt, Ceti Alpha System, etc.) and Stardust was aimed at comet tails, it’s entirely possible that it picked up particles from somewhere else.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-stardust-interstellar-dust/340100/3 "2006-01-15T18:12:20Z")

</div>

> [@Tuckerfan](#):
>
> Given that comets can come from who knows where …

Plus, any dust that isn’t actually on the sun, including the dust bunnies under my bed, is _between_ the sun and some other star; making it interstellar dust. The stuff _on_ the sun would be intrastellar dust.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-stardust-interstellar-dust/340100/4 "2006-01-15T18:27:22Z")

</div>

From the [JPL Stardust home page](http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.html):

> [@](#):
>
> The comet samples are expected to be made up of ancient pre-solar interstellar grains and nebular condensates that were incorporated into comets at the birth of the solar system.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-stardust-interstellar-dust/340100/5 "2006-01-17T11:52:41Z")

</div>

Anyone going to join [Stardust@Home](http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/) and help UC Berkeley find the dust?