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Article: Scientists say grains collected in upper atmosphere are older than the sun.
- Article from:
- The Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX)
- Article date:
- March 25, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Dallas Morning News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Alexandra Witze
HOUSTON _ Planetary scientists aren't sticklers about cleanliness. For them, a little dust is a good thing.
Especially dust from outer space. NASA flies special dust collectors in Earth's upper atmosphere to gather motes from another world.
A new study of this extraterrestrial dust has turned up some of the oldest, most primitive particles known _ older even than the 4.6-billion-year-old solar system. The dust is the remains of distant stars.
The finding, announced last month at a scientific meeting in Houston, is another step toward understanding how the solar system came to be.
"These particles are ...