Heidelberg 2006 – scientific programme
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EP: Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 6: Poster
EP 6.3: Poster
Tuesday, March 14, 2006, 14:00–16:30, C
A Trajectory Sensor for Space Dust — •Eberhard Grün1, Ralf Srama2, Andre Srowig3, Sascha Kempf2, Georg Moragas-Klostermeyer2, Siegfried Auer4, and Stefan Helfert2 — 1MPI-Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Ger; HIGP, Univ. Honolulu, USA — 2MPI-Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany — 3KIP Heidelberg, Germany — 4A&M Assoc., Basye, USA
Dust particles’ trajectories are determined by the measurement of the electric signals that are induced when a charged grain flies through a position sensitive electrode system. The goal of the trajectory sensor is to measure dust charges in the range 10^-16 to 10^-13 C and dust speeds in the range 6 to 100 km/s. The trajectory sensor has four sensor planes consisting of about 15 wire electrodes each. Two adjacent planes have orthogonal wire direction. An ASIC charge sensitive amplifier has been developed with a RMS noise of about 1.5 10^-17 C. The signals from 32 electrodes are digitized and sampled at 20 MHz rate by an ASIC transient recorder. This trajectory sensor was subject to performance tests at the Heidelberg dust accelerator. Signals from dust particles in the speed range from 5 to 30 km/s demonstrate that trajectories can be measured with accuracies of ~1 deg. in direction, and ~1% in speed.