Plunging through the atmosphere in a fiery re-entry over the Utah desert, the spacecraft made a perfect pre-dawn landing after seven years of traveling through the solar system on a 3 billion mile mission to collect particles from a comet.
Scientists are ecstatic over the safe return of the craft, as they believe that some of the particles gathered on the mission are older than the solar system itself, and that ultimately, the analysis of the particles will provide clues to the formation of the sun and the planets themselves. NASA spent a relatively low amount of money, approximately 200 million dollars, on the project.
Meanwhile, back here on Earth, as far as we know the only planet in our solar system with the ability to sustain life, frogs are dying as a result of global warming. A new study published in Nature, the British weekly journal of science, reports that climate change has wiped out two thirds of a unique species of frog that lives high in the cloud forests of Central America.
Scientists have long known that amphibians, such as frogs, can be seen as bell weather species for changing environmental conditions, as they depend on the integrity of their porous skin to survive.
Might not the 200 million dollars spent on collecting stardust have been put to better use? Our planet is in trouble and we still have our heads literally in the clouds.
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