…not to be confused with the Flux Capacitor.

“Scientists at the University of Chicago are among the first ever to analyze cometary dust delivered to Earth via spacecraft.”

The Stardust mission launched in February 1999, carrying a set of instruments that included one provided by the University of Chicago to monitor the impact of cometary dust. On Jan. 2, 2004, the spacecraft came within 150 miles of the comet and collected thousands of tiny dust particles streaming from its nucleus. The Stardust sample-return canister parachuted onto the desert salt flats of Utah on Jan. 15 following a journey of nearly three million miles.

During the 2004 cometary encounter, the University of Chicago’s Dust Flux Monitor Instrument successfully determined the flow and mass of the particles streaming from the comet’s nucleus. Based on data collected by the instrument, the University of Chicago’s Anthony Tuzzolino and Thanasis Economou estimated that the spacecraft had collected at least 2,300 particles measuring 15 micrometers (one-third the size of a human hair) or larger during the flyby.

“It will take the experts many, many months before they will determine the accurate number, but I am sure that in the end their number will be close to what we have predicted,” said Economou, who was at the Johnson Space Center in Houston when the samples were delivered from Utah. “Stardust was very successful beyond all expectation in all its phases.”
…
Grossman and Simon received several samples on Feb. 7. The samples partly consist of several thin slices of one dust grain mounted in epoxy and held on a round copper grid covered by a thin film. They also received a bullet-shaped epoxy plug holding the remainder of the grain.

“They can make hundreds of slices of each individual grain,” Simon said. He and Grossman are studying their slices with an electron microprobe and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The microprobe is capable of revealing the chemical composition of microscopically small patches of material, while the SEM provides highly magnified images.