Frontiers in In-Situ Cosmic Dust Detection and Analysis

Journal Article · Tue Nov 29 00:00:00 EST 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3659763· OSTI ID:21612199

Sternovsky, Zoltan ^[1]; Auer, Siegfried ^[2]; Drake, Keith; Gruen, Eberhard; Horanyi, Mihaly; Le, Huy; Jianfeng, Xie ^[1]; Srama, Ralf ^[3]

---

1. Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309 (United States)
2. A and M Associates, Basye, VA, 22810 (United States)
3. Institute of Space Systems, University of Stuttgart, 70569 (Germany)

In-situ cosmic dust instruments and measurements played a critical role in the emergence of the field of dusty plasmas. The major breakthroughs included the discovery of {beta}-meteoroids, interstellar dust particles within the solar system, Jovian stream particles, and the detection and analysis of Enceladus's plumes. The science goals of cosmic dust research require the measurements of the charge, the spatial, size and velocity distributions, and the chemical and isotopic compositions of individual dust particles. In-situ dust instrument technology has improved significantly in the last decade. Modern dust instruments with high sensitivity can detect submicron-sized particles even at low impact velocities. Innovative ion optics methods deliver high mass resolution, m/dm>100, for chemical and isotopic analysis. The accurate trajectory measurement of cosmic dust is made possible even for submicron-sized grains using the Dust Trajectory Sensor (DTS). This article is a brief review of the current capabilities of modern dust instruments, future challenges and opportunities in cosmic dust research.

• OSTI ID: 21612199
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1397, Issue 1; Conference: 6. international conference on the physics of dusty plasmas, Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany), 16-20 May 2011; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3659763; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ASTROPHYSICS
COSMIC DUST
DETECTION
IONIZATION
JUPITER PLANET
MASS RESOLUTION
METEOROIDS
PARTICLES
PLASMA
PLUMES
REVIEWS
SOLAR SYSTEM
STREAMS
TRAJECTORIES
VELOCITY
DOCUMENT TYPES
DUSTS
PHYSICS
PLANETS
RESOLUTION
RIVERS
SURFACE WATERS