Stardust (spacecraft)

So imagine that you are a little space explorer, and you have a really cool spaceship that's called the Stardust. When your spaceship goes up into space, it flies near things called comets which are like big balls of ice and dust that are flying around in space.

When your Stardust spaceship gets close to a comet, it uses a special tool called a collector to scoop up some of the dust and bring it back to Earth. This is why it's called Stardust, because it collects little pieces of dust and stardust from space!

Scientists use the Stardust spaceship to study the dust and stardust it collects from comets because it can tell them a lot about how the solar system was formed and what space is made of. By studying the stardust, they can learn about different elements that make up the universe, and how they all fit together.

So, just like how you collect cool rocks or shells that you find at the beach to learn about the natural world, scientists use the Stardust spaceship to collect stardust and learn about the universe around us!