NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Tektite Return To Earth
NASA Astronaut Piers Sellers will honor former Goddard scientist, the late Charlie Schnetzler, by presenting his wife and family with the Australasian tektites collected by her husband during his search for the source crater and flown in orbit by Astronaut Sellers.
Tektites are pieces of melted rock blasted into space by hypervelocity impact events, such as those made when near earth objects (NEO’s) collide with Earth. These objects return to the Earth’s surface as recondensed rock “glass.”
This event is symbolic of the great scientific impact Mr. Schnetzler had on Earth, planetary sciences, and the importance of continued human spaceflight.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
Follow us on Twitter
Join us on Facebook
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Debbie Mccallum
Tektite Return To Earth
NASA Astronaut Piers Sellers will honor former Goddard scientist, the late Charlie Schnetzler, by presenting his wife and family with the Australasian tektites collected by her husband during his search for the source crater and flown in orbit by Astronaut Sellers.
Tektites are pieces of melted rock blasted into space by hypervelocity impact events, such as those made when near earth objects (NEO’s) collide with Earth. These objects return to the Earth’s surface as recondensed rock “glass.”
This event is symbolic of the great scientific impact Mr. Schnetzler had on Earth, planetary sciences, and the importance of continued human spaceflight.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
Follow us on Twitter
Join us on Facebook
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Debbie Mccallum