[extropy-chat] Genesis probe crashes

[The Avantguardian]

--- Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - A space capsule
> returning solar particles to 
> Earth after a three-year mission that probed the
> origins of the solar 
> system crashed in the Utah desert before it could be
> captured in a mid-air 
> recovery, officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
> said on Wednesday. 

Well all I can say is good thing it wasn't sampling
soil from an alien biosphere or we might have had the
"andromeda strain" on our hands. As it is, we may have
particles of exotic matter floating around Utah. They
could be toxic or radioactive but hey at least it's
just Utah.
 I am puzzled by the second to last sentence from the
article:

>The container inside the capsule had solar ions, some
as light as a few grains of sand.

I thought that ions were charged atoms or at least
small molecules. So being equal in mass to a few
grains of sand would make them the heaviest ions I
have ever heard of. Is this a mistake? Or did they get
some really crazy new form of heavy matter like atoms
made of top quarks or something?

=====
The Avantguardian 


"He stands like some sort of pagan god or deposed tyrant. Staring out over the city he's sworn to . . .to stare out over and it's evident just by looking at him that he's got some pretty heavy things on his mind."


		
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