The scattering properties of cometary dust
This paper discusses the scattering properties of cometary dust.
comet↗
SEARCH · Search NASA
Results for “Comet Dust”
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Comets: Role and importance to exobiology
The transfer of organic compounds from interstellar space to the outskirts of a protoplanetary disk, their accretion into cometary objects, and the transport of the latter into the inner solar system by orbital diffusion throw a new light on the central problem of exobiology. It suggests the existence of a cosmic mechanism, working everywhere, that can supply prebiotic compounds to ubiquitous rocky planets, in search of the proper environment to start life in many places in the Universe. Under the heading of chemistry of the cometary nucleus, the following topics are covered: radial homogeneity of the nucleus; the dust-to-ice ratio; nature of the dust grains; origin of the dust in comets; nature of the volatile fraction; the CO distribution in comet Halley; dust contribution to the volatile fraction; elemental balance sheet of comet Halley; quantitative molecular analysis of the volatile fraction; and isotopic ratios. Under the heading of exogenous origin of carbon on terrestrial planets the following topics are covered: evidence for a high-temperature phase; from planetesimals to planets; a veneer of volatile and organic material; and cometary contribution.
Delsemme, Armand H.↗
Asteroids and Comets Outreach Compilation
Contents include various different animations in the area of Asteroids and Comets. Titles of the short animated clips are: STARDUST Mission; Asteroid Castallia Impact Simulation; Castallia, Toutatis and the Earth; Simulation Asteroid Encounter with Earth; Nanorover Technology Task; Near Earth Asteroid Tracking; Champollian Anchor Tests; Early Views of Comets; Exploration of Small Bodies; Ulysses Resource Material from ESA; Ulysses Cometary Plasma Tail Animation; and various discussions on the Hale-Bopp Comet. Animation of the following are seen: the Stardust aerogel collector grid collecting cometary dust particles, comet and interstellar dust analyzer, Wiper-shield and dust flux monitor, a navigation camera, and the return of the sample to Earth; a comparison of the rotation of the Earth to the Castallia and Tautatis Asteroids; an animated land on Tautatis and the view of the motion of the sky from its surface; an Asteroid collision with the Earth; the USAF Station in Hawaii; close-up views of asteroids; automatic drilling of the Moon; exploding Cosmic Particles; and the dropping off of the plasma tail of a comet as it travels near the sun.
Source record↗
The Nature of Interstellar Dust
The STARDUST mission is designed to collect dust the coma of comet Wild 2 and to collect interstellar dust on a second set of collectors. We have a reasonable idea of what to expect from the comet dust collection because the research community has been studying interplanetary dust particles for many years. It is less clear what we should expect from the interstellar dust. This presentation discusses what we might expect to find on the STARDUST interstellar dust collector.
Huss, G. R.↗
Confirmation of dust clusters in the coma of Comet Halley
Measurements from the Ducma dust counter and mass analyzer on the Vega spacecraft are compared with those from the SP-1 sensor on the same spacecraft. It is shown that the sequence of pulses recorded by the SP-1 instruments show deviations from a random distribution. Some of the nonrandom sequences observed by SP-1 are in the same time intervals as the clusters observed by the Ducma instrument. The results support the analysis of Ducma data which showed highly structured variations of dust intensity through the coma and large fluxes of low mass particles extending to great distances beyond the coma (Simpson et al., 1986).
Simpson, J. A.↗
Evidence for fragmentation of strongly nonspherical dust particles in the tail of Comet West 1976 VI
Motion of 16 striae through the dust tail of Comet West 1976 VI are observed over a time interval of more than three days. Initiation times for most of the 16 striae are found to coincide with the times of discrete violent bursts of dust, determined from the motions of streamers. It is also found that fragments are subjected to repulsive accelerations between 0.6 and 2.7 the solar attraction, indicating submicron-size absorbing particles, while repulsive accelerations imparted to parent articles are slightly lower than the average acceleration of fragments. The sizes of the fragments are estimated to be between one tenth and a few tenths of a micron. No effect of the Lorentz force on striae motion is detected. It is concluded that the theoretical assumption that striae are products of fragmentation of friable dust particles ejected from the nucleus agrees with observations.
Sekanina, Z.↗
The dynamics of charged dust in the tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner
A numerical simulation has been performed to calculate the distributions of dust particles of various sizes down the tail of comet P/Giacobini-Zinner. When the electrostatic charging of the grains in the plasma and radiative environment of the comet is taken into account, it is found that the distribution of the grains (particularly at the lowest end of the mass spectrum) in a plane normal to the orbital plane is entirely different from what is expected had the grains been uncharged. Although the NASA-ICE spacecraft, which will fly through the tail of this comet almost normal to its orbital plane on September 11, 1985, has no dedicated dust experiments, it is expected that the plasma wave instrument will serve as an indirect detector, even of the smallest grains, via the plasma clouds created by the high-velocity dust impacts. Knowledge of the spatial variation of the grain sizes encountered along the flight path of the spacecraft will provide us with the information necessary to calculate the electrostatic potential of the grains, which in turn will lead to an estimation of the role of the electromagnetic forces on the dynamics of such grains.
Horanyi, M.↗
Observations of Comet 2P/Encke During the Fall 2013 Apparition
We will present preliminary results from our observational campaign of Comet 2P/Encke during its 2013 perihelion passage. At optical wavelengths Encke is an extremely dust poor comet that has in past perihelion passages emitted a gas jet in the form a sunward fan. We expect to characterize both the morphology and lightcurve of the comet. The low optical dust means that even near perihelion the nuclear signature can be obtained in lightcurve data taken with narrowband continuum filters which cut out the gas emission. The campaign will consist of both narrowband and broadband imaging as well as infrared spectroscopy. Imaging will be obtained from 8 nights on the KPNO 2.1m between Sept. 7 and 14 UT. Additionally, the Murillo Family Observatory, a 0.5m telescope on the CSUSB campus which is equipped with both broadband filters and a narrowband Hale-Bopp set of filters will be used to observe the comet every clear night the moon allows between late August and early October to obtain extensive lightcurve data. These data will overlap both the Kitt Peak observations and the infrared spectroscopy which will be obtained with the SpeX instrument at the IRTF on four nights between September 26 UT and October 2 UT.
Abell, Paul↗
Direct Characterization of Comets and Asteroids via Cosmic Dust Analysis from the Deep Space Gateway
The Deep Space Gateway (DSG) may provide a platform for direct sampling of a large number of comets and asteroids, through employment of an instrument for characterizing dust from these bodies. Every year, the Earth traverses through debris streams of dust and small particles from comets and asteroids in Earth-crossing orbits, generating short-lived outbursts of meteor activity commonly known as "meteor showers" (Figure 1). The material in each debris stream originates from a distinct parent body, many of which have been identified. By sampling this material, it is possible to quantitatively analyze the composition of a dozen or more comets and asteroids (See Figure 2, following page) without leaving cislunar space.
Fries, M.↗
Comet flyby sample return experiment
Dust from several comets can be returned to earth with minimum propulsion effort after a high-speed encounter. The collection concept involves the capture of individual dust particles by condensation in a cell after vaporization by a thin diaphragm. This collection concept has been validated in laboratory tests. To compensate for the slower laboratory velocities in a two-stage light-gas gun, higher-density metals (Zn and Cd) have been used for particles and diaphragms to simulate hypervelocity vaporization. Teflon has proved to be a suitable material for the collection cell; more than 50 percent of the vaporized projectile material has been recovered by chemical etching from such cells. Hypervelocity-impact parameters (such as diaphragm-to-projectile ratio, hole size, and plume angles) determined by tests permit the modification of existing analytical models. These new findings are necessary for flyby cometary experiments.
Tsou, P.↗
The chemical composition of comets and possible contribution to planet composition and evolution
The theory of cold aggregation of interstellar dust into comets is shown to support the ideas that comets provided not only a substantial part of the earth's water but also of its complex organic surface material. Comparison of the density of interstellar dust with meteor densities leads to the conclusion that comets are very fluffy bodies whose solid matter occupies no more than 2/5 of the total volume and possibly substantially less. This implies an extremely low comet albedo of about 0.05 in the visual even for slightly absorbing individual components.
Greenberg, J. Mayo↗
Water and dust production rates in comet P/Halley derived from ultraviolet and optical observations
We evaluate whether the activity of comet P/Halley is due solely to the presence of discrete active areas. We preliminarily conclude that the dark areas of the nucleus contribute to the formation of the coma.
Festou, Michel C.↗
Laboratory Simulation of Impacts upon Aluminum Foils of the Stardust Spacecraft: Calibration of Dust Particle Size from Comet Wild 2
Metallic aluminium alloy foils exposed on the forward, comet-facing surface of the aerogel tray on the Stardust spacecraft are likely to have been impacted by the same cometary particle population as the dedicated impact sensors and the aerogel collector. The ability of soft aluminium alloy to record hypervelocity impacts as bowl-shaped craters offers an opportunistic substrate for recognition of impacts by particles of a wide potential size range. In contrast to impact surveys conducted on samples from low Earth orbit, the simple encounter geometry for Stardust and Wild 2, with a known and constant spacecraft-particle relative velocity and effective surface-perpendicular impact trajectories, permits closely comparable simulation in laboratory experiments. For a detailed calibration programme we have selected a suite of spherical glass projectiles of uniform density and hardness characteristics, with well-documented particle size range from 10 microns to nearly 100 microns. Light gas gun buckshot firings of these particles at approximately 6km s)exp -1) onto samples of the same foil as employed on Stardust have yielded large numbers of craters. Scanning electron microscopy of both projectiles and impact features has allowed construction of a calibration plot, showing a linear relationship between impacting particle size and impact crater diameter. The close match between our experimental conditions and the Stardust mission encounter parameters should provide another opportunity to measure particle size distributions and fluxes close to the nucleus of Wild 2, independent of the active impact detector instruments aboard the Stardust spacecraft.
Kearsley, A. T.↗
Curation of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Coma Dust and Fresh Interstellar Dust From the Stardust Mission
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Michael Zolensky↗
Cometary dust composition
The earth based measurements and in situ sampling of Comet Halley have provided new data about the chemical composition of cometary grains. Recent progress in laboratory studies of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) complement the comet data, allowing inferences about the mineralogy and physical structure of the comet dust to be drawn from the observed elemental composition and infrared spectra. The in situ dust composition measurements at Halley, the composition of IDPs and their relation to comet dust, and the origin of the 3.4 micron hydrocarbon feature is discussed. Related discussion is also presented on aromatic components in comets and the 3.4 micron feature. These topics are briefly summarized.
Gehrz, R. D.↗
Shock Effects on Cometary-Dust Simulants
While comets are perhaps best known for their ability to put on spectacular celestial light shows, they are much more than that. Composed of an assortment of frozen gases mixed with a collection of dust and minerals, comets are considered to be very primitive bodies and, as such, they are thought to hold key information about the earliest chapters in the history of the solar system. (The dust and mineral grains are usually called the "refractory" component, indicating that they can survive much higher temperatures than the ices.) It has long been thought, and spacecraft photography has confirmed, that comets suffer the effects of impacts along with every other solar system body. Comets spend most of their lifetimes in the Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system between 30 and 50 times the average distance of the Earth from the Sun, or the Oort Cloud, which extends to approximately 1 light year from the Sun. Those distances are so far from the Sun that water ice is the equivalent of rock, melting or vaporizing only through the action of strong, impact-generated shock waves.
Lederer, Susan M.↗
The carbon chemistry of meteorites: Relationships to comets
The carbonaceous meteorites exhibiting alteration by liquid water bear a strong relationship to comets. Not only is their elemental composition closer to solar in relative abundances than other meteorites, they are water rich; and they contain isotopic compositions among refractory and volatile elements indicative of presolar components. Some of these isotopic anomalies occur in organic compounds and carbonaceous grains signifying the presence of discrete and identifiable carbon components derived from interstellar and circumstellar matter. Insofar as comets and meteorites are ultimately formed from interstellar gas and dust, and comets have been subjected to considerably less aqueous and thermal evolution than carbonaceous meteorites, the interstellar imprint should be much stronger and better preserved in comets.
Chang, S.↗
The discovery of dust trails in the orbits of periodic comets
Analysis of data from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite has yielded evidence for narrow trails of dust coincident with the orbits of periodic comets Tempel 2, Encke, and Gunn. Dust was found both ahead of and behind the orbital positions of these comets. This dust was produced by the low-velocity ejection of large particles during perihelion passage. More than 100 additional dust trails are suggested by the data, almost all near the detection limits of the satellite. Many of these dust trails may be derived from previously unobserved comets.
Sykes, M. V.↗