Nittler examines Stardust collection grid at Johnson Space Center. (Image courtesy Larry Nittler)

Larry Nittler, Conel Alexander and colleagues, including former postdoctoral fellow Henner Busemann, and George Cody, Andrew Steele, and Marc Fries of the Geophysical Laboratory, are featured in a special section of the December 15 issue of Science for their nearly year-long work in analyzing Wild 2 comet samples—the first comet samples ever retrieved from space—from NASA’s Stardust mission last year.

Nearly 200 scientists from around the world have studied the minuscule grains, looking for clues to the physical and chemical history of our Solar System. Although years of work remain to fully decipher the properties of comet Wild 2, researchers are sure that it contains some of the most primitive and exotic chemical structures ever studied in a laboratory. Research efforts have focused on overall questions regarding the nature of the comet samples, including determining mineral structures, chemical composition, and the characteristics of the organic or carbon-containing compounds they carry.

For more information, see Science. For the full Carnegie Institution press release, click here.