A fluorescent aerogel for capture and identification of interplanetary and interstellar dust

被引：12

作者：

Domínguez, G ^{[1
]}

Westphal, AJ

Phillips, MLF

Jones, SM

机构：

[1] Univ Calif Berkeley, Space Sci Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

[2] Pleasanton Ridge Res Corp, Hayward, CA 94542 USA

[3] CALTECH, Jet Prop Lab, Pasadena, CA 91109 USA

[4] Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Phys, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

来源：

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL | 2003年 / 592卷 / 01期

关键词：

astrochemistry; dust; extinction; instrumentation : detectors; interplanetary medium; meteors; meteoroids; techniques : image processing;

D O I：

10.1086/375549

中图分类号：

P1 [天文学];

学科分类号：

0704 ;

摘要：

Contemporary interstellar dust has never been analyzed in the laboratory, despite its obvious astronomical importance and its potential as a probe of stellar nucleosynthesis and Galactic chemical evolution. Here we report the discovery of a novel fluorescent aerogel that is capable of capturing hypervelocity dust grains and passively recording their kinetic energies. An array of these "calorimetric" aerogel collectors in low-Earth orbit would lead to the capture and identification of large numbers of interstellar dust grains.

引用

页码：631 / 635

页数：5