NASA finds cosmic dust speeding through our solar system

[Little_Wing]

The Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, has detected alien dust that came from outside our solar system.
Scientists suspect that this dust is interstellar in origin because it moves fast and in different directions, compared to the dust found on Saturn, according to a recently published report in the journal of Science. And although this alien dust was faint, it had a distinct signature.
Cassini has been studying the gas giant and its moons. During its tenure, the spacecraft used its cosmic dust analyzer to sample millions of ice-rich dust grains.

Understanding the makeup of interstellar dust can help scientists learn more about how stars, planets and, ultimately, our universe has taken shape.

Most of those dust came from Saturn's active moon Enceladus. The moon, which has a global ocean and other geographic features, has active jets that spray dust particles into space.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/16/tech/cosmic-dust-nasa-cassini-irpt/index.html

Very cool illustrations at source!

[complain jane]

1. Interesting stuff!

Thanks!