Skip to main content

The Ulysses Dust Experiment

Grun, E., Fechtig, H., Giese, R.H, Kissel, Jochen, Linkert, D., Maas, C., McDonnell, J.A.M., Morfill, G.E., Schwehm, G., Zook, Harald and others. (1992) The Ulysses Dust Experiment. Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 92 (2). pp. 411-423. ISSN 0365-0138. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:22496)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.

Abstract

The Ulysses dust experiment is intended to provide direct observations of dust grains with masses between 10(-16) g and 10(-6) g in interplanetary space, to investigate their physical and dynamical properties as functions of heliocentric distance and ecliptic latitude. Of special interest is the question of what portion is provided by comets, asteroids and interstellar particles. The investigation is performed with an instrument that measures the mass, speed, flight direction and electric charge of individual dust particles. It is a multicoincidence detector with a mass sensitivity 10(6) times higher than that of previous in-situ experiments which measured dust in the outer solar system. The instrument weighs 3.8 kg, consumes 2.2 W, and has a normal data transmission rate of 8 bits/s in nominal spacecraft tracking mode. On 27th October 1990 the instrument was switched-on. The instrument was configured to flight conditions and science data collection started immediately. In the period to 13th January 1991 at least 44 dust impacts have been recorded. Flux values are given covering the heliocentric distance range from 1.04 to 1.7 AU.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled keywords: Artificial Satellites, Space Probes; Instrumentation Interplanetary Medium
Subjects: Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Physics and Astronomy
Depositing User: P. Ogbuji
Date Deposited: 07 Oct 2009 13:11 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:01 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/22496 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

McDonnell, J.A.M..

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.