Tuesday 22 September at 3pm

Simon Green - University of Kent

"In-situ detection of Interstellar Dust"

ABSTRACT:"Experiments to detect interplanetary dust have been conducted regulalrly for over three decades using spacecraft in Earth orbit or in the inner Solar System. Early attempts on probes to the outer Solar System lacked the sophistication to determine orbits from which sources of the dust may be determined. The "impact plasma telescopes" on the Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft permit determination of particle speed and direction as well as mass. This has led to the discovery of dust jets from the Jovian system and interstellar dust at 5 A.U. I will describe the dust detection techniques, details of the results from Galileo and Ulysses and the expectation of in-situ measurements of elemental composition of interstellar dust using the University of Kent's Chemical Analyser now flying on Cassini."