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Sheridan et al. 1992
Sheridan, T.E., Goree, J., Chiu, Y.T., Rairden, R.L. and Kiessling, J.A. (1992). Observation of dust shedding from material bodies in a plasma. Journal of Geophysical Research 97: doi: 10.1029/91JA02801. issn: 0148-0227.

Exposure to a space plasma can cause a dusty body, such as a spacecraft or a boulder in Saturn's rings, to release dust into its environment. This is demonstrated in a laboratory experiment with an aluminum sphere covered with micrometer-sized dust grains. The sphere was rotating and electrically floating like an object space. Laser light scattering was used to detect dust falling from the body. When a low-temperature nitrogen plasma was turned on, rapid dust sheding was observed, and when it was turned off, the shedding stopped. The rate of shedding increases with plasma density. The dust is not all released the instant the plasma is turned on but rather takes place over an extended period of time, with individual grains jumping off at random intervals with a certain probability per unit time. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1992

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Planetology, Fluid Planets, Rings and dust, Planetology, Comets and Small Bodies, Dust, Space Plasma Physics, Laboratory studies, Space Plasma Physics, Spacecraft sheaths, wakes, charging
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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