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Constraining the Origin of Impact Craters on Al Foils from the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector

Author
Butterworth, Anna L.
Published
January 2012.
Physical Description
1 electronic document
Additional Creators
Burchell, Mark, Borg, Janet, Floss, Christine, Doll, Ryan, Achilles, Cheri, Sandford, Scott A., Changela, Hitesh, Ansari, Asna, Flynn, George, Bridges, John, Brownlee, Donald E., Frank, David, Cloetens, Peter, Bechtel, H. A., Davis, Andrew M., Bastien, Ron S., Zolensky, Michael E., Bajt, Sasa, Bassim, Nabil, Brenker, Frank E., Stroud, Rhonda M., Burghammer, Manfred, Fougeray, Patrick, and Allen, Carlton
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Summary
Preliminary examination (PE) of the aerogel tiles and Al foils from the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector has revealed multiple impact features. Some are most likely due to primary impacts of interstellar dust (ISD) grains, and others are associated with secondary impacts of spacecraft debris, and possibly primary impacts of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) [1, 2]. The current focus of the PE effort is on constraining the origin of the individual impact features so that definitive results from the first direct laboratory analysis of contemporary ISD can be reported. Because crater morphology depends on impacting particle shape and composition, in addition to the angle and direction of impact, unique particle trajectories are not easily determined. However, elemental analysis of the crater residues can distinguish real cosmic dust from the spacecraft debris, due to the low cosmic abundance of many of the elements in the spacecraft materials. We present here results from the elemental analysis of 24 craters and discuss the possible origins of 4 that are identified as candidate ISD impacts
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
Note
Document ID: 20120002764.
JSC-CN-25744.
43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference; 19-23 Mar. 2012; The Woodlands, TX; United States.
Terms of Use and Reproduction
Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright.
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