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The final chemical composition of vapor clouds created by the impacts higher than 10 km/s is important to investigate the evolution of the planetary surface environment and life. However, no previous experimental study has observed directly it because of experimental difficulties. In this study, we conducted hypervelocity impact experiments using a laser gun and measured the chemical compositions of the impact-generated sulfuric oxides directly. The result clearly shows that the sulfur oxides released by hypervelocity impacts are dominated by SO3, not SO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flyer acceleration technique using high-power lasers has several advantages such as the achieved velocities higher than 10 km/s and non-contamination to the products generated by impacts. In this study, we show that a high-power laser can achieve impact velocities higher than 10 km/s up to 60 km/s using sheet flyers with a diameter of ~ 0.5 mm and a thickness of ~ 30 - 50 μm and spherical projectiles with a diameter of 0.1 - 0.3 mm. We discuss the difference between sheet and spherical flyers in the energy transfer efficiency from laser energy to flyer kinetic energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]