Micrometeoroid

A micrometeoroid is a tiny meteoroid: a small particle of rock in space, usually weighing less than a gram. A micrometeorite is such a particle that survives passage through Earth's atmosphere and reaches Earth's surface. The term "micrometeoroid" was officially deprecated by the IAU in 2017, as redundant to meteoroid. Cosmic dust Micrometeoroids are very small pieces of rock or metal broken off from larger chunks of rock and debris often dating back to the birth of the Solar System. Micrometeoroids are extremely common in space. Tiny particles are a major contributor to space weathering processes. When they hit the surface of the Moon, or any airless body (Mercury, the asteroids, etc.), the resulting melting and vaporization causes darkening and other optical changes in the regolith. Micrometeoroids have less stable orbits than meteoroids, due to their greater surface area to mass ratio. Micrometeoroids that fall to Earth can provide information on millimeter scale heating events in the solar nebula. Meteorites and micrometeorites (as they are known upon arrival at the Earth's surface) can only be collected in areas where there is no terrestrial sedimentation, typically polar regions. Ice is collected and then melted and filtered so the micrometeorites can be extracted under a microscope. Sufficiently small micrometeoroids avoid significant heating on entry into Earth's atmosphere. Collection of such particles by high-flying aircraft began in the 1970s, since which time these samples of stratosphere-collected interplanetary dust (called Brownlee particles before their extraterrestrial origin was confirmed) have become an important component of the extraterrestrial materials available for study in laboratories on Earth. In 1946 during the Giacobinid meteor shower, Helmut Landsberg collected several small magnetic particles that were apparently associated with the shower. Fred Whipple was intrigued by this and wrote a paper that demonstrated that particles of this size were too small to maintain their velocity when they encountered the upper atmosphere.

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Space debris

Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in space - principally in Earth orbit - which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft - nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages - mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in Earth orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft.

Micrometeorite

A micrometeorite is a micrometeoroid that has survived entry through the Earth's atmosphere. Usually found on Earth's surface, micrometeorites differ from meteorites in that they are smaller in size, more abundant, and different in composition. The IAU officially defines meteorites as 30 micrometers to 1 meter; micrometeorites are the small end of the range (~submillimeter). They are a subset of cosmic dust, which also includes the smaller interplanetary dust particles (IDPs).

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ˈnæsə) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. Established in 1958, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the U.S. space development effort a distinctly civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science.

Black carbon and dust in the Third Pole glaciers: revaluated concentrations, mass absorption cross-sections and contributions to glacier ablation

Julia Schmale, Yang Li, Wei Yang, Xinyang Li

In snow and ice, light-absorbing particles (LAPs), such as black carbon (BC) and dust, accelerate the melting of Third Pole glaciers (TPGs). In this study, we revaluated LAP concentrations in the snow pits of TPGs (SP-TPGs), measured LAP mass absorption cr ...

2021

Mass is one of the crucial parameters for hardware that has to be placed in Earth orbit. Due to its harsh environment, a material with highest specific properties is desired to achieve space missions. The rise and development of new technologies, such as a ...

EPFL2018

Hypervelocity impact testing on stochastic and structured open porosity cast Al-Si cellular structures for space applications

Andreas Mortensen

A hypervelocity (6.7–7.0 km/s) impact testing campaign was conducted using Ø 2 mm, 95% Al projectiles onto A357 aluminium alloy stochastic foams with 4–5 mm typical pore dimensions, or alternatively diamond cubic periodic structures of cast AlSi12 with a 6 ...

2018

Additive Manufacturing: Materials and Processes MICRO-631: Selected topics in advanced manufacturing

Explores additive manufacturing processes, including SLS and SLM, interface improvement, composite production, and space qualification for spacecraft panels.

Environmental Constraints: Vacuum, Atomic Oxygen, and Radiations EE-580: Introduction to the design of space mechanisms

Explores vacuum, atomic oxygen, and various space radiations, highlighting the challenges and effects on materials.