D. Zevin

University of California, Berkeley | UCB · Space Sciences Laboratory

The total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, crossed the whole width of North America, the first occasion for this during the modern age of consumer electronics. Accordingly, it became a great opportunity to engage the public and to enlist volunteer observers with relatively high-level equipment; our program ("Eclipse Megamovie") took advantage of t...

NASA's Stardust mission utilized a sample collector composed of aerogel and aluminum foil to return cometary and interstellar particles to Earth. Analysis of the aluminum foil begins with locating craters produced by hypervelocity impacts of cometary and interstellar dust. Interstellar dust craters are typically less than one micrometer in size and...

The NASA Stardust mission used silica aerogel slabs to slowly decelerate and capture impinging cosmic dust particles for return to Earth. During this process, impact tracks are generated along the trajectory of the particle into the aerogel. It is believed that the morphology and dimensions of these tracks, together with the state of captured grain...

Hard X-ray, quantitative, fluorescence elemental imaging was performed on the ID22NI nanoprobe and ID22 microprobe beam lines of the European Synchrotron Research facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, on eight interstellar candidate impact features in the framework of the NASA Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination (ISPE). Three features were...

With the discovery of bona fide extraterrestrial materials in the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector, NASA now has a fundamentally new returned sample collection, after the Apollo, Antarctic meteorite, Cosmic Dust, Genesis, Stardust Cometary, Hayabusa, and Exposed Space Hardware samples. Here, and in companion papers in this volume, we present th...

Here, we report the identification of 69 tracks in approximately 250 cm2 of aerogel collectors of the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector. We identified these tracks through Stardust@home, a distributed internet-based virtual microscope and search engine, in which > 30,000 amateur scientists collectively performed >9 9 107 searches on approximatel...

We report the quantitative characterization by synchrotron soft X-ray spectroscopy of 31 potential impact features in the aerogel capture medium of the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector. Samples were analyzed in aerogel by acquiring high spatial resolution maps and high energy-resolution spectra of major rock-forming elements Mg, Al, Si, Fe, and...

We discuss the inherent difficulties that arise during "ground truth" characterization of the Stardust interstellar dust collector. The challenge of identifying contemporary interstellar dust impact tracks in aerogel is described within the context of background spacecraft secondaries and possible interplanetary dust particles and beta-meteoroids....

Under the auspices of the Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination, picokeystones extracted from the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector were examined with synchrotron Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microscopy to establish whether they contained extraterrestrial organic material. The picokeystones were found to be contaminated with varying...

Here, we report analyses by synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microscopy of the elemental composition of eight candidate impact features extracted from the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector (SIDC). Six of the features were unambiguous tracks, and two were crater-like features. Five of the tracks are so-called "midnight" tracks-that is, they had tra...

The NASA Stardust spacecraft exposed an aerogel collector to the interstellar dust passing through the solar system. We performed X-ray fluorescence element mapping and abundance measurements, for elements 19 <= Z <= 30, on six "interstellar candidates," potential interstellar impacts identified by Stardust@Home and extracted for analyses in picoke...

On the basis of an interstellar dust model compatible with Ulysses and Galileo observations, we calculate and predict the trajectories of interstellar dust (ISD) in the solar system and the distribution of the impact speeds, directions, and flux of ISD particles on the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector during the two collection periods of the mi...

The Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination team analyzed thirteen Al foils from the NASA Stardust interstellar collector tray in order to locate candidate interstellar dust (ISD) grain impacts. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images reveal that the foils possess abundant impact crater and crater-like features. Elemental analyses of the cr...

Seven particles captured by the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector and returned to Earth for laboratory analysis have features consistent with an origin in the contemporary interstellar dust stream. More than 50 spacecraft debris particles were also identified. The interstellar dust candidates are readily distinguished from debris impacts on the...

Using synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction measurements, we identified crystalline material in two particles of extraterrestrial origin extracted from the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector. The first particle, I1047,1,34 (Hylabrook), consisted of a mosaiced olivine grain approximately 1 mu m in size with internal strain fields up to 0.3%. The uni...

Special Issue: 74th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, August 8-12, 2011, London, U.K.

The Stardust Discovery mission returned two unprecedented extraterrestrial samples to terrestrial laboratories: the first samples from a known planetary body beyond the Moon, the Jupiter-family comet 81P/Wild2, and the first sample of contemporary interstellar dust. The Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector is a 0.1m2 array of aerogel and aluminum f...

Here we describe the critical role that synchrotron X‐ray and infrared microprobes are playing in the search for interstellar dust in the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector (SIDC). The samples under examination are submicron particles trapped in low‐density aerogel. We have found that the spatial resolution, energy range, and flux capabilities of...

As a partner for EPO programs, the Project ASTRO National Network offers access to hundreds of trained educators and astronomer-educator partnerships across the country. This makes the Network extremely suitable for dissemination and/or testing of new science education products, in particular those that benefit from support by scientists and/or (th...

There are a variety of videoconferencing technologies that EPO providers can use for their projects and programs. Applications, to name just a few, include teacher professional development, classroom presentations, and project team meetings. Prices range from completely free for simple web-based (IP network) systems (excluding start-up costs such a...

The 115-year old ASP has become one of the nation's leading organizations devoted primarily to increasing public awareness, understanding, and enjoyment of astronomy and space science. In this poster we intend to give an overview of the current programs and projects in public outreach, informal education, and K-14 formal education. Primary partners...

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) represents a wide body of astronomical interests within the US, including a very vibrant educational section. The ASP aims to play a major role in IYA2009 as shown in this article.