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Cometary dust characteristics: comparison of stardust craters with laboratory impacts
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Cole, M. J. Burchell, M. J. Kearsley, A. T. Horz, F. Graham, G. A. Wozniakiewicz, P. A. |
| Copyright Year | 2007 |
| Description | Aluminium foils exposed to impact during the passage of the Stardust spacecraft through the coma of comet Wild 2 have preserved a record of a wide range of dust particle sizes. The encounter velocity and dust incidence direction are well constrained and can be simulated by laboratory shots. A crater size calibration programme based upon buckshot firings of tightly constrained sizes (monodispersive) of glass, polymer and metal beads has yielded a suite of scaling factors for interpretation of the original impacting grain dimensions. We have now extended our study to include recognition of particle density for better matching of crater to impactor diameter. A novel application of stereometric crater shape measurement, using paired scanning electron microscope (SEM) images has shown that impactors of differing density yield different crater depth/diameter ratios. Comparison of the three-dimensional gross morphology of our experimental craters with those from Stardust reveals that most of the larger Stardust impacts were produced by grains of low internal porosity. |
| File Size | 236004 |
| Page Count | 2 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20070011619 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t3sv2jw3v |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2007-01-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration Comets Olivine Scanning Electron Microscopy Aluminum Backscattering Impactors Metal Foils Wild 2 Comet Dust Craters Stardust Mission Porosity Digital Elevation Models Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports ServerĀ (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |