NASA's Stardust mission was launched in 1999 to collect samples from a comet and return them to Earth. The spacecraft traveled to Comet Wild 2, where it captured particles from the comet's coma, which is the cloud of gas and dust surrounding it. In 2006, Stardust successfully returned to Earth, landing in the Utah desert. Scientists analyzed the collected samples to learn more about the early solar system and the building blocks of life. This mission provided valuable insights into the composition of comets and their role in delivering organic materials to planets.