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View of the unablated (virgin) heatshield sample.

Picture 3 of 3.

As the spacecraft reenters the Earth's atmosphere, it compresses the air ahead of it, heating it up. The heatshield material is designed to char, burn off, and erode in a controlled manner when subjected to high heat. As it does so, it would release gases to form a cooler boundary layer, and as the gas would dissipates, it would carry the heat with it. This process would form a black char layer on top.

However, as this is an unablated sample, there is only a white layer of virgin heatshield material. This consists of a metallic honeycomb filled with resin.

The darker layer below that is a metallic honeycomb which forms the base of the heatshield.