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Particulate Detection in the Near Earth Space Environment Aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility Ldef: Cosmic or Terrestrial?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

J.A.M. McDonnell ,
K. Sullivan ,
T.J. Stevenson  and
D.H. Niblett
J.A.M. McDonnell
Affiliation:
Unit for Space Sciences, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, United Kingdom
K. Sullivan
Affiliation:
Unit for Space Sciences, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, United Kingdom
T.J. Stevenson
Affiliation:
Unit for Space Sciences, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, United Kingdom
D.H. Niblett
Affiliation:
Unit for Space Sciences, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR, United Kingdom

Abstract

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Examination of surfaces exposed for more than five and a half years, from detectors with unique attitude stabilisation relative to the orbital velocity vector, offers scope for examining definitively the sources of hypervelocity space particulates. Surfaces reveal discrete crater morphologies, crater size distributions and incident flux distributions. Discrete crater studies will later also reveal the chemistry of residues which can, especially via the capture cell principle, lead to elemental analysis of micron dimensioned particles.

First analyses of the flux data from the thin foil perforation experiments (MAP) involve a study of the statistics of the forward (ram) direction, the rear (trailing) direction and the space pointing direction. Modelling of the dynamics of geocentrically bound and unbound orbits yields evidence that the characteristics of the particles, and hence probably their source, change over the particle size range measured by the experiment. Smaller particles (< 1 μm diameter) have lower velocities which could include geocentrically bound particulates, whereas the larger particles (5-10 μm diameter) can be identified with “cosmic” particles of interplanetary or interstellar origin.

Type
Interplanetary Dust: Space and Earth Environment Studies
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 126: Origin and Evolution of Interplanetary Dust , 1991 , pp. 2 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1991

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