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? [music] ?

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KIDS: Our World!

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EVAN: Hey Globey, I’m going to
catch a meteorite.

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Any minute now... a meteorite
is going to fall from the sky,

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and I’m going to be right here
to catch it... that’s right.
Any minute now.

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that’s right,
any minute now.

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Okay, we actually might be here
for a while.

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You see even though meteorites
fall to Earth everyday,

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we might have to wait a
thousand years or so to

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actually catch one in this
spot.

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And since these show’s roughly
about five minutes long, I
better get right to the point.

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Today we’re going learn about
how NASA has been studying
meteorites

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and comet dust to learn more
about our world.

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Dr. Mike Zolensky is 
a cosmic minerologist

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at NASA’s Johnson 
Space Center in
Houston, Texas.

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He studies rocks from outer
space.

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These space rocks are called
meteorites

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and are basically samples from
other worlds.

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These samples contain the
materials, like carbon,

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that make up our planet and
other planets in our solar
system.

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Scientists call these materials
the building blocks of the
universe.

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DR. MIKE ZOLENSKY: Well, the
compounds that make up you and
me

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and all the world around us are
in this rock.

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It isn’t alive, it was never
living.

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But all the building blocks of
all those things are in here.

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So we think that the Earth and
the Moon and the Sun formed
from

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rocks just like this. And so by
getting these,

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collecting them, and bringing
them to labs like this one
right here;

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and analyzing them with things
like this machine right here,

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we can find out a lot about
where all the planets came
from.

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How they formed, and maybe a
little bit about where we came
from as well.

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EVAN: So, how do mineorologists
like Dr. Zolensky find these
meteorites?

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Well, some of these meteorites
have already fallen to Earth.

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So, where are the best places
to find them?

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Places like the desert
are a great because

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they don’t contain rivers or
oceans that could hide the
meteorites or wash them away.

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Also, most people don’t want to
live in the desert,

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so sometimes these meteorites
go undiscovered in the deserts

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for thousands of years.

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But the best place on Earth to
find meteorites

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is at the South Pole in
Antarctica.

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The area is cold and dry. And
until recently,

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humans rarely went to the
Antarctic.

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So there are many meteorites
waiting to be found there.

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In fact, some of these
meteorites may have been

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lying there on the ice for
millions of years.

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EVAN: Dr. Zolensky is part of
an important mission at NASA

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to study other kinds of rocks.

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Tiny little particles that can
be found in comets.

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Let’s ask Dr. Zolensky what a
comet is.

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DR. ZOLENSKY: Comets are icy
objects and you see,

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this is a chunk of very very
cold ice.

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It’s a special ice called dry
ice. It’s super cold,

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like you have in space. And
there’s rock attached to it
here.

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And this sort of thing, this is
where most of rocks in space
come from.

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They come from real icy rocky
objects that are orbiting the
Sun.

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And they’re mostly composed of
ice here,

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which is frozen gases and
frozen water.

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And these comets are always
flying around the Sun.

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And they’re giving off
particles.

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EVAN: So how do scientists like
Dr. Zolensky study comets?

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I mean, how do you actually get
a sample of a comet?

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DR. ZOLENSKY: “Stardust” is the
name of a mission

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created by scientists all over
the United States in
cooperation with NASA.

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The purpose of this mission was
to investigate a comet called
“Wild 2.”

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Interesting name, isn’t it?

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During the Stardust
mission, a space craft

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was launched from Earth on
February 7, 1999.

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It took seven years just to
complete the mission.

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The Stardust space craft
traveled nearly 4.8

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billion kilometers to reach the
comet.

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We could make 6,000 trips to
the Moon and back before we
traveled that far.

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Once the spacecraft reached the
comet,

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it opened up like a giant
collector dish

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to capture samples of the
comet’s dust.

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DR. ZOLENSKY: Well, it’s more
like a catcher’s mitt.

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The clam shell opened up, the
catcher’s mitt came out,

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and as the comet dust smacked
into it, it’s like catching
baseballs.

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Thousands of baseballs. But
very tiny microscopic
baseballs.

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These grains are smaller than
the width of a human hair.

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EVAN: This comet dust was
collected in a substance 
called Aerogel.

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Aerogel is so light that when
you hold it in your hand, you
can’t even feel its weight.

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EVAN: Aerogel gel begins as a
gel, much like the gelatin that
you eat.

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The material then goes through
a special process

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where the liquid is taken out
without collapsing the gel.

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The result is an amazingly
strong lightweight material.

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Seven years after the Stardust
space craft was launched,

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it returned to Earth on January
15, 2006.

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Scientists then had access to
all of this comet dust that was
stored in the Aerogel.

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DR. ZOLENSKY: Basically
everyone here is calm.

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So you know how some of your
friends are like constantly,
uh, like this:

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they just can’t settle down.
Right? And some people are
calm,

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you know they’re really calm.
They’re kind of laid back.
That’s how we are.

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And people like that can very
carefully take little pins

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and just pick up little
microscopic things under

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a microscope and move 
them place to place.

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Pick them up, set them down, in
places like this.

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A microscope like this to
study.

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And so it takes a special kind
of person who’s very calm

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and very hardworking.

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But a lot of people are like
that. So a lot of kids out
there watching this

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I’m sure this is the job for
you. Not everyone, but for some
people

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who are really curious about
what’ s out there in space

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and where the Earth came from.
And really have the drive to
learn about it.

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EVAN: But the mission was worth
the time and effort.

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Scientists like Dr. Zolensky
discovered not

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only the dust they expected to
find in aerogel,

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but small
crystals as well.

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And by studying these small
crystals,

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scientists have already changed
some of their ideas

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on how and where comets are
formed.

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So Globey, today we’ve learned
that meteorites and comet dust

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contain particles that are the
building blocks of our
universe.

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And when scientists get a
chance to study these
particles,

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they can find out more about
our own world.

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Maybe one day you’ll get to
find a meteorite.

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And remember, if you hold one
in your hand,

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you’re actually holding
something that may be millions
and millions of years old.

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Maybe it’s even older than our
Earth itself.

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That’s pretty cool isn’t it.

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All right, let’s go. Come to
papa.

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? [music] ?

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KIDS: Our World!