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Micrometeoroid Events in LISA Pathfinder
- Source :
- UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), The Astrophysical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal, 2019, 883, pp.53. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/ab3649⟩, Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya, instname
- Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- The zodiacal dust complex, a population of dust and small particles that pervades the Solar System, provides important insight into the formation and dynamics of planets, comets, asteroids, and other bodies. Here we present a new set of data obtained using a novel technique: direct measurements of momentum transfer to a spacecraft from individual particle impacts. This technique is made possible by the extreme precision of the instruments flown on the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, a technology demonstrator for a future space-based gravitational wave observatory that operated near the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point from early 2016 through Summer of 2017. Using a simple model of the impacts and knowledge of the control system, we show that it is possible to detect impacts and measure properties such as the transferred momentum (related to the particle's mass and velocity), direction of travel, and location of impact on the spacecraft. In this paper, we present the results of a systematic search for impacts during 4348 hours of Pathfinder data. We report a total of 54 candidates with momenta ranging from 0.2$\,\mu\textrm{Ns}$ to 230$\,\mu\textrm{Ns}$. We furthermore make a comparison of these candidates with models of micrometeoroid populations in the inner solar system including those resulting from Jupiter-family comets, Oort-cloud comets, Hailey-type comets, and Asteroids. We find that our measured population is consistent with a population dominated by Jupiter-family comets with some evidence for a smaller contribution from Hailey-type comets. This is in agreement with consensus models of the zodiacal dust complex in the momentum range sampled by LISA Pathfinder.<br />Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, accepted in ApJ
- Subjects :
- Astrofísica
Solar System
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Meteors
Astrophysics
01 natural sciences
Planet
meteoroids
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
Settore FIS/01
Physics
Sistema solar
education.field_of_study
Micrometeoroid
Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Meteoroids
instrumentation: miscellaneous
meteorites, meteors, meteoroids
Asteroid
Physical Sciences
0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics
Physics::Space Physics
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
miscellaneous [Instrumentation]
Solar system
Population
FOS: Physical sciences
Astronomy & Astrophysics
meteorites
0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences
0103 physical sciences
meteors
education
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Science & Technology
Zodiacal light
Meteoroid
instrumentation: miscellaneou
Astronomy
Astronomy and Astrophysics
miscellaneous
meteorites, meteors, meteoroids [instrumentation]
Pathfinder
13. Climate action
Space and Planetary Science
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]
Física::Astronomia i astrofísica [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC]
Enginyeria electrònica::Instrumentació i mesura [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC]
ORBITS
Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Meteorites
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0004637X and 15384357
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), The Astrophysical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal, 2019, 883, pp.53. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/ab3649⟩, Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya, instname
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....71af0a9dcab44d3d739f3f8134569bc1