<P> Genesis was followed by NASA 's Stardust spacecraft , which returned comet samples to Earth on January 15 , 2006 . It safely passed by Comet Wild 2 and collected dust samples from the comet 's coma while imaging the comet 's nucleus . Stardust used a collector array made of low - density aerogel ( 99 % of which is empty space ) , which has about 1 / 1000 of the density of glass . This permits the ability to collect the cometary particles without damaging them due to high impact velocities . Particle collisions with even slightly porous solid collectors would result in destruction of those particles and damage to the collection apparatus . During cruise , the second side of the array collected at least seven interstellar dust particles . </P>
<P> Genesis was followed by NASA 's Stardust spacecraft , which returned comet samples to Earth on January 15 , 2006 . It safely passed by Comet Wild 2 and collected dust samples from the comet 's coma while imaging the comet 's nucleus . Stardust used a collector array made of low - density aerogel ( 99 % of which is empty space ) , which has about 1 / 1000 of the density of glass . This permits the ability to collect the cometary particles without damaging them due to high impact velocities . Particle collisions with even slightly porous solid collectors would result in destruction of those particles and damage to the collection apparatus . During cruise , the second side of the array collected at least seven interstellar dust particles . </P>
what real life mission returned a sample from a comet
what real life mission returned a sample from a comet
Stardust
Stardust