GENESIS SOLAR WIND SAMPLE COLLECTION Genesis samples are the
first extraterrestrial samples returned to Earth by NASA since
the Apollo program, which ended in the early 1970s. The
collectors returned by the Genesis mission contain solar wind
atoms which can be analyzed in sophisticated laboratory
instruments to measure very precisely the composition of the
Sun. Since the Sun contains >99% of the mass in the solar
system, knowing its elemental and isotopic composition is a good
average measure of the composition of the solar nebula at the
time when the planets were forming. Scientists already have
rocks from the Moon, Mars and the asteroids and dust specks from
comets. Genesis' solar data should allow new insights in tracing
the chemical evolution of diverse planetary samples, most of
which came from a common starting material, the solar nebula.