Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p52b..07k&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P52B-07
Physics
6008 Composition (1060), 6015 Dust, 6022 Impact Phenomena (5420, 8136), 6023 Comets: Dust Tails And Trails (6210), 6040 Origin And Evolution
Scientific paper
Passage of the Stardust spacecraft through the coma of comet Wild 2 in 2004 resulted in capture of numerous particles in the low density silica aerogel collection medium, and many impacts onto exposed aluminum foil strips. The abundant craters on the aluminum Al1100 can be interpreted in terms of impacting particle size, density and mass, with some information concerning particle shape, internal structure and chemical composition. The tightly constrained impact velocity (6.1 km s-1 and trajectory (perpendicular to the collection surface) for dust impinging on Stardust provide conditions that can be duplicated in impact simulations by light gas guns using flight-spare aerogel and foil as targets. We can have much greater confidence in the direct comparison of the experiments with Stardust's impact features than is possible for craters formed by hypervelocity impact in low Earth orbit, where individual particle velocities and trajectories are unknown but certainly vary widely, and include much higher speeds. For Stardust foils, we have performed an extensive suite of calibration experiments to determine the crater top-lip diameter dependence on impacting particle dimensions, the role of particle density in creation of recognizable crater shapes, and the modification of particle composition during the impact process for a wide range of minerals that might be found in cometary dust. During the preliminary evaluation phase of Stardust we have used scanning electron microscopy on the aluminum foils to measure the diameters of large numbers of craters for particle size determination, have created three dimensional digital models of crater shapes and depth profiles for density estimation, and have acquired dozens of energy dispersive X-ray maps of crater impact residues, and thousands of analytical spectra to infer particle composition and, in some cases, mineralogy. In this paper we will reveal results for a suite of Stardust craters spanning a size range from sub-micron to sub-millimeter, and will discuss their implications for understanding the size, structure, and composition of Wild 2 dust.
Borg Janet
Bridges John
Burchell Mark
Graham Garrett
Hörz Fred
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