This Echo is READ ONLY !   NO Un-Authorized Messages Please!
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kathleen Burton                         April 17, 2003
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-1731 or 650/604-9000
E-mail: kburton{at}mail.arc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 03-28AR

NOTE TO EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS:  Members of the news media and 
public are invited to attend the fifth talk in this year's 2002-2003 
Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, to be held on Wednesday, 
April 23, at 7 p.m. PDT at Foothill College's Smithwick Theater, Los 
Altos Hills, Calif. More information is available by calling the 
series hotline at 650/949-7888.

NASA ASTROPHYCIST TO DISCUSS STARDUST COMET SAMPLE-RETURN MISSION

Humanity' first opportunity to study the original material from which 
our solar system was built will be the subject of a free public 
lecture at Foothill College on Wednesday, April 23 at 7 p.m. PDT. The 
talk is entitled "The Stardust Mission: Bringing Home a Comet."

Stardust mission co-investigator Dr. Scott Sandford of NASA Ames 
Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley, will 
describe the sample-return mission to a comet. Launched in 1999, the 
mission will rendezvous with a comet in 2004 and return samples of 
cometary dust to Earth in 2006. The Stardust mission is the first 
return of a sample from outside the Earth's moon system.

"NASA Ames is pleased to co-sponsor the popular Silicon Valley 
Astronomy Lecture Series, which exemplifies excellence in science 
outreach," said NASA Ames Research Center Director G. Scott Hubbard. 
"This is one important element of our efforts to inspire the next 
generation of space explorers."

Sandford is a renowned expert in the field of meteoritics, the study 
of rocks that fall from space. He has helped discover a number of 
such rocks in Antarctica.  Among his other scientific interests is 
the study of molecules in clouds of interstellar dust from which new 
stars and planets form.

This is the fourth year of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture 
Series, which is co-sponsored by NASA Ames, Foothill College's 
Division of Physical Science, Mathematics and Engineering, the 
Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the SETI Institute.

The lecture series is held at Foothill College's Smithwick Theater in 
Los Altos Hills. From Interstate 280, exit at El Monte Road and 
travel west to the campus. Visitors must purchase a one-day 
campus-parking permit for $2. Seating is on a first-come, 
first-served basis. Young people over the age of 13 are welcome. More 
information is available by calling the series hotline at 
650/949-7888.

For more information about the Stardust mission, visit:
                         http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/

                -end-

 - END OF FILE -
==========

@Message posted automagically by IMTHINGS POST 1.30
---