Cool Comet Catcher

Once again, NASA is showing that the coolest stuff it accomplishes doesn't involve incredibly expensive and extremely dangerous efforts to send humans into space. A University of Washington astronomer called particles captured by NASA's Stardust comet-catcher "absolutely stunning," the Seattle Times reports. Stardust landed Sunday after traveling seven years and nearly 3 billion miles. It passed within 150 miles of the comet Wild-2 to reach out and swipe gas and dust emitted by the comet. In related news, former astronaut Mike Mullane, who has flown on the space shuttle three times, calls it "the most dangerous manned spacecraft ever flown, by anybody."