Impact Flash Spectroscopy

Computer Science

Scientific paper

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Impacts: Flash, Impacts: Oblique, Impacts: Vaporization, Spectroscopy, Spectroscopy: Emission

Scientific paper

Hypervelocity impacts into volatile-rich targets generate a self-luminous cloud that expands and decelerates in the presence of an atmosphere following theoretical expectations. Spectra of such clouds reveal prominent emission lines resulting from vaporized target components and reactions with the impactor. Because the degree of vaporization and cloud luminosity is found to vary with impact velocity, angle, and impactor/target combinations, experiments were designed using the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range to assess the evolving spectral content. Our results establish that a wealth of compositional information can be derived from emission spectra at relatively modest impact velocities (5-6 km/s) for a wide range of carbonate and silicate targets. In contrast with much earlier studies that viewed the phenomena as a nearly instantaneous flash, our results document a complex vapor cloud that evolves in both time and space. Consequently, spectroscopy provides a powerful new tool not only for probing the impact process but also for exploiting this information to determine planetary surface compositions that might be difficult to measure or interpret with conventional remote-sensing techniques.

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