Laboratory Simulation of Shooting Stars

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26610184
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Geochemistry/Cosmochemistry
• Research Institution: Chiba Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: SENSHU Hiroki 千葉工業大学, 惑星探査研究センター, 上席研究員 (30359202)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 流星 / 人工流星 / ２段式軽ガス銃 / 高速カメラ / 分光

Outline of Final Research Achievements

When a mmm-sized dust particle enters into Earth's atmosphere, it is observed as a bright streak, a shooting star. A shooting star is one-time event and, in most cases, the dust is completely vaporized. Thus the original size and composition is not easy to estimate only from ground-based observation.
In this study we constructed a laboratory experimental system to simulate shooting stars by using a two-stage light gas gun. In this system the simulated shooting star is observed by high-speed camera with the frame rate of 1 mega frames/s, and simultaneously the light from the shooting star is analysed by a spectrograph with the wavelength resolution of 5.7 nm.
Our laboratory experimental system will provide a fundamental data-set which relate the ground-based observational result to the original size and composition of the shooting star.

Free Research Field

比較惑星学