Impact craters

Discuss your experiences with and ideas about Stardust@home here.

Moderators: Stardust@home Team, DustMods

Post Reply
legs2041
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2006 6:19 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Impact craters

Post by legs2041 »

Assuming that we are looking at the surface of the aerogel where the dust first arrives, please explain why the tracks (at least on the calibration movies) only show up beneath the surface of the aerogel.

I would have thought that the impact would cause a crater - like meteors on the moon's surface do - as well as a sub-surface track. :?
Michael
Exir
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:22 pm

Post by Exir »

Actually, if you look carefully, you could see a slightly discolored patch on the surface of the place of the track
Wolter
DustMod
Posts: 457
Joined: Mon May 22, 2006 2:23 am
Location: Enkhuizen, the Netherlands

Post by Wolter »

What you are looking for is the edge of the track. Due to the speed at which the particles enter the aerogel a lot of heat is generated causing this bubbleshaped track which is most prominent just below the surface.

The aerogel is used just to prevent events which happen when you shoot something at high speed into a solid material. Meteors on celestial bodies cause craters because they impact on high density material causing all sorts of havoc. Aerogel is almost like solid air. It's purpose is to capture particles with the least disturbance possible.

Check http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov for a lot of interesting information on stardust and aerogel.
Just dusting... Image
Post Reply