Mission Stardust: To unravel secrets of the universe

The Stardust space capsule ferrying the first comet dust samples to Earth landed successfully in the remote American desert on Sunday, drawing cheers from elated scientists. The landing caps a seven-year round-trip, interstellar rendezvous by the NASA spacecraft, which zipped past the to comet Wild 2 in 2004 to capture minute dust particles and store them in the capsule for the homecoming.

In pic: The NASA image shows the nucleus of comet Wild 2, taken by the navigation camera during the close-approach phase of Stardust in 2004. (NASA)