OMEGA OPTICAL FILTERS, PRESENT IN NASA'S STARDUST SATELLITE, HELP BRING HOME COMET DUST

On January 15 NASA’s Stardust satellite returned to earth from a 2.88 billion mile, seven-year round- trip journey, with dust from the tail of comet Wild 2 collected with the aid of filters from Omega Optical.

Approximately 2 years ago, the satellite passed within 149 miles of the comet, navigating a “hazardous traverse” through the particle and gas coma collecting samples and sending back images of the comet’s pockmarked surface. The camera on board the Stardust mission used Omega filters as an integral part of its optical system. The samples collected are the first ever from a comet and the first from outside our earth/moon system, containing material that has been unaltered since the formation of the solar system.

In its 35 year history Omega Optical has provided filters for other prestigious astronomy projects, including the Hubble Space Telescope’s Widefield Planetary Camera 1 and 2, which were equipped with Omega filters in 1991 and 2003, and the Martian Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which are still sending back images from the surface of Mars after more than a year on the surface of the planet.