 | Astronomers have known for decades that the space between the planets
is filled with micron - sized dust grains. These dust grains orbit the
sun along with meteoroids and asteroids, but they also interact with
the out flowing solar wind. The IMAGE neutral - atom experiment has been
able to detect neutral solar wind particles and can use this to place limits
on the total amount of these dust grains in interplanetary space, and has been able to measure the neutral
solar wind flux even though the dust itself is not
directly observed by the neutral-atom experiment.
(2003: Collier, Moore, Ogilvie, Chornay, Keller, Fuselier, Quinn, Wurz, West, Hsieh)
|
Related IMAGE Discoveries
Additional Information | Solar Wind -The flow of charged
particles from the Sun. The outer layers of the Sun including its corona,
expand out into space at speeds of nearly 500,000 miles per hour. The density
of this gas is about 10 atoms per cubic inch.
| Plasma -A complex mixture of atoms and
electrically-charged particles. Typical space plasma contain uncharged atoms,
electrons, protons and ions of various atoms.
| | | | IMAGE experiments | Useful Web Resources | CuratorDr. S. Odenwald, sten.odenwald@gsfc.nasa.gov, +1-301-286-6953
NSSDC, Mail Code 630, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
NASA Approval: J. L. Green, James.Green@nasa.gov
Rev. 1.0.0, 24 April 2003, EVB II |
