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When spacecraft and satellites travel through space they encounter tiny, fast moving particles of space dust and debris. If the particle travels fast enough, its impact appears to create electromagnetic radiation (in the form of radio waves) that can damage or even disable the craft’s electronic systems.
A new study published this week in the journal Physics of Plasmas, from AIP Publishing, uses computer simulations to show that the cloud of plasma generated from the particle’s impact is responsible for creating the damaging electromagnetic pulse. They show that as the plasma expands into the surrounding vacuum, the ions and electrons travel at different speeds and separate in a way that creates radio frequency emissions. ...
The study is a step towards verifying the theory of senior author Sigrid Close, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University. In 2010, Close and colleagues published the initial hypothesis that hypervelocity impact plasmas are responsible for a few satellite failures. ...
Particle-in-Cell Simulations of an RF Emission Mechanism
Associated with Hypervelocity Impact Plasmas - Alex Fletcher & Sigrid Close
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
This video represents data collected by the Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, as it crossed the plane of Saturn's rings on Dec. 18, 2016. The instrument is able to record ring particles striking the spacecraft in its data. During this ring crossing, Cassini went through the faint, dusty ring that lies in the orbit shared by Saturnian moons Janus and Epimetheus. In this data there is a clearly audible and visible rise, peak, and fall in the number of pops and cracks that represent ring particles striking the spacecraft. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Iowa
This video represents data collected by the Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, as it crossed through the gap between Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017, during the first dive of the mission's Grand Finale. The instrument is able to record ring particles striking the spacecraft in its data. In the data from this dive, there is virtually no detectable peak in pops and cracks that represent ring particles striking the spacecraft. The lack of discernible pops and cracks indicates the region is largely free of small particles. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Iowa
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
