Happy Valentines Day From Stardust!

In his latest status report on efforts by scientists and volunteers to extract cometary particles from the aerogel collectors of the Stardust probe, Stardust Deputy Principal Investigator Dr. Peter Tsou told Aero-News scientists made an interesting discovery last week.

Tsou states that as part of the first Sample Processing Cycle, the keystone of the first released particle was taken to the National Synchrotron Light Source at New York's Brookhaven National Laboratory to be examined. Scientists at Brookhaven verified the particle was definitely a cometary mineral, and not secondary debris.

"As part of the second Sample Processing Cycle, the terminal particle - the particle at the end of the tract - was removed from the keystone for further analyses on Valentine's Day," Tsou writes.

Pretty dry stuff so far, right? Well, here's where it gets weird.

"To our surprise, we found the particle to be heart-shaped!" Tsou says. "Happy Valentine's to the world from Stardust!"

"I have been assured that this is the real shape of the particle!" Tsou added.

Either the discovery shows that the universe truly works in beautiful and mysterious ways... or, alas, that those working to analyze the data returned last month by NASA's Stardust probe just maybe... perhaps... need to get out of the lab more often.

Then again... it really does look like a heart.

Tsou says the particle will be embedded in sulfur first, with a few wafers removed for mineralogy and petrology studies. The remainder of the particle will then be pressed into gold foil for isotopic studies... much as, perhaps, old valentine cards are pressed into a scrapbook (okay, so we're reaching here.)

The scientist refused to comment, however, on persistent rumors that, under even stronger magnification, you can almost make out the faint message "BE MINE" embedded on the particle.

FMI: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html