Stuttgart 2012 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 11: Poster Planeten und kleine Körper
EP 11.1: Poster
Mittwoch, 14. März 2012, 16:30–19:00, Poster.IV
Compositional analysis of interstellar dust as seen by the Cassini Cosmic Dust Detector — •Katherina Fiege1, Sascha Kempf2, Ralf Srama3, and Mario Trieloff1 — 1Institut für Geowissenschaften, Heidelberg, Germany — 2LASP, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA — 3Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme, Stuttgart, Germany
Interstellar dust (ISD) contains most of the condensable elements of the interstellar medium (ISM) and contributes the raw material for planet formation processes. Most information on its composition stems from astronomical observations, analysis of meteorites and raw data from space missions, showing a detectable flux of interstellar dust particles entering our solar system. Our aim is to discover impact signatures of ISD particles onto the Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) onboard the Cassini spacecraft. The CDA determines dynamical properties (e.g., direction, speed, size) of particles impacting with velocities up to 100 km/s, as well as the elemental composition via impact ionization time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry. A sophisticated evaluation of the CDA mass spectra requires laboratory calibration of the CDA flight spare instrument. For this, submicron- to micron sized dust analogues with well defined composition are prepared and finally shot onto the CDA and a high resolution impact mass spectrometer using the Heidelberg Van de Graaff dust accelerator. We here present results of analogue shots onto the CDA and a high resolution mass spectrometer. Further, we report analyses of natural and synthetic samples, inspected beforehand for their suitability as cosmic dust analogues.