Jena 2013 – scientific programme
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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 10: Planeten-III
EP 10.4: Talk
Friday, March 1, 2013, 10:15–10:30, SR 113
Mass, size and optical properties of interstellar dust particle candidates retreived from Stardust — •Veerle Sterken1,2, Andrew Westphal3, Anna Butterworth3, Nicolas Altobelli4, Jon Hillier5, Frank Postberg1,5, Ralf Srama1,2, Eberhard Grün2, and ISPE Team6 — 1IRS, Universität Stuttgart, Germany — 2MPIK, Heidelberg, Germany — 3SSL, UCL, Berkeley, CA, USA — 4ESA, Madrid, Spain — 5Institut für Geowissenschaften, Universität Heidelberg, Germany — 6the entire World
In this talk we discuss the process of inferring the mass, size and optical properties of the interstellar dust candidates in the Stardust aerogel collector. In 2006, the Stardust mission brought back cometary particles from Comet Wild 2 on one side of a collector tray, and interstellar dust candidates on the other side. Up to now, three interstellar dust candidates were found in the aerogel collector and four extra ISD candidates were identified in the Aluminum foils surrounding the aerogel. The 3 aerogel ISD candidates were studied in depth by the Interstellar Preliminary Examination Team (ISPE) using non-destructive methods ranging from X-ray microscopy and calibration tests with a linear dust accelerator, to interstellar dust trajectory simulations. These provided information about the composition of the ISD candidates, their mass, size, impact velocity and indirectly to its optical properties. It was found that two of the three particles were more sensitive to solar radiation pressure force than woud be expected from compact (astro)silicates whereas one of the particles had a ratio of solar radiation pressure force to graviy lower than one.