Lecturer: Dr. Veerle Sterken (Bern) Date: 2018-02-12 10:00 Place: Aniara
Interstellar dust in the heliosphere
Dr. Veerle Sterken
Astronomical Institute University of Bern
Interstellar dust (ISD) from the local interstellar cloud traverses the solar system at 26 km/s, owing to the relative motion of the Sun and the cloud. These particles are messengers from outer space that can be studied in situ with dust detectors on space missions.
In 1993, the first ISD particles were detected in situ using the Ulysses cosmic dust detector. The mission provided a total of 16 years of ISD data. In 2006, Stardust brought a few samples of interstellar dust material back to Earth for further study in the laboratory. Finally, in 2016, the Cassini mission provided the first time-of-flight mass spectra of 36 ISD impacts on the Cassini Cosmic Dust Analyzer.
In this talk, we review the latest developments in the study of “local†interstellar dust with remote sensing, in-situ, and sample return techniques. The dynamics of the ISD moving through the heliosphere will briefly be explained. In conclusion, we elaborate on what we can gain from computer simulations and spacecraft data for constraining both the ISD properties as well as for studying the heliosphere.
Created 2017-11-11 13:01:57 by Mats Holmström Last changed 2017-11-11 13:01:57 by Mats Holmström
