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Energy loss and impact cratering in aerogels: theory and experiment |
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| Authors: | Gerardo Domínguez Andrew J Westphal Mark LF Phillips |
| Institution: | a Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA b Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA c Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA, USA d Pleasanton Ridge Research Corporation, Hayward, CA 94542, USA |
| Abstract: | Aerogel collectors have been deployed in low-Earth orbit to collect orbital debris and micrometeorites. An array of silica aerogel collectors is currently en-route back to Earth following an encounter with the Comet Wild-2 on board the Stardust spacecraft. Stardust is returning, for laboratory analysis, cometary and interstellar dust grains which impacted into the aerogel collectors at hypervelocities. While the morphology of impact craters in aerogels has been studied empirically, a theoretical understanding of the physical mechanisms responsible for the formation of impact craters in these solids is lacking. Here we propose and test a model of compaction driven impact cratering in aerogels. Our model derives impact crater dimensions directly from energy and momentum deposition. |
| Keywords: | Cratering Impact processes Comets Asteroids |
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