A Royal Astronomical Society Specialist Discussion Meeting organised by *Penny Wozniakewicz (Kent); Mark J Burchell (Kent); Mark Price (Kent); John Bridges (Leicester)
*contact: pjw@kent.ac.uk
This meeting will focus on the study of those dust particles that reside in, or pass through, the vicinity of the Earth and the cis-lunar environment. We include both the natural micrometeoroid populations and spacecraft derived orbital debris in our interests. Natural micrometeoroid studies have the potential to provide details of the formation and evolution of their parent bodies. Also, as we continue to explore and populate space with spacecraft, the risk posed by impacts of these particles (and space debris) is becoming an increasing concern, prompting efforts to monitor levels and investigate and mitigate the hazards they pose. We encourage talks and posters on current and future dust collections/monitoring experiments (both in space and on the Earth’s surface or from the Earth’s atmosphere), findings from analyses of these samples, studies of the dust bulk properties (e.g. size-frequency distributions, velocity distributions etc.) and the hazards posed by these particles (e.g. the results of impacts between these particles and spacecraft). Talks and posters can focus on analytical results, experimental data, modelling, and descriptions of new dust collector designs/technologies.
Admission to Specialist Discussion Meetings is free for RAS Fellows, £15 for non-fellows (£5 for students), cash or cheque only, collected at the registration desk. Admission to the subsequent Open (Monthly A&G) Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society is open to all, at no charge