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outlawolf
01-24-2006, 11:57 PM
hey guys, dont know if anyone else has seen this yet, but I came across it while surfing.

Here's the addy and a quick bio, which is aparrently another Berkeley University project:

http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

In January 2004, the Stardust spacecraft flew through the coma of comet Wild2 and captured thousands of cometary dust grains in special aerogel collectors. Two years later, in January 2006, Stardust will return these dust grains --- the first sample return from a solid solar-system body beyond the Moon --- to Earth. But Stardust carries an equally important payload on the opposite side of the cometary collector: the first samples of contemporary interstellar dust ever collected. As well as being the first mission to return samples from a comet, Stardust is the first sample return mission from the Galaxy. But finding the incredibly tiny interstellar dust impacts in the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector (SIDC) will be extremely difficult.

We are seeking volunteers to help us to search for these tiny samples of matter from the galaxy. Volunteers are critical to the success of this project. Please help us find the first samples of contemporary Stardust ever collected.

--the project hasn't kicked off yet, but they have pre-registering, so get in now, dont know if there will be an cut-off.

NeoGen
01-25-2006, 12:21 AM
I had seen it already but what disappointed me was reading that the work will have to be done manually, instead of letting the machine crunch it.
We will have to be watching the pics filled with the stardust grains thoroughly and point out the special ones they want.
It's like some time ago NASA had a similar project that was to identify craters in mars surface pics, and classify by size. It might be funny at start but it gets boring after a few minutes... :?