The Stuff Between The Stars

more information This image, from a picture captured by Dave Palmer, shows the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius. The Centre of our galaxy lies near the middle of the image, but we can't see it because dust grains in intervening clouds block starlight coming from the core of the Milky Way. The dark areas in this image are places where the dust concentration is high. (Airplanes caused the lines through this picture.)

The Dusty Plasma Lab allows scientists at MSFC to study the optical characteristics of the dust grains trapped in their apparatus.

Venturini said that other experiments will measure how dust grains of different sizes and materials scatter, absorb and emit light of different frequencies. Experiments with the DPL have already measured the effects of ultraviolet radiation and an electron beam on simulated cosmic dust grains. The electron beam is used to mimic the plasma in which cosmic dust is sometimes immersed - hence the name "Dusty Plasma Laboratory."

To complement these experiments, the MSFC investigators are working on a collaborative arrangement with Auburn University's Space Plasma Laboratory (SPL). The SPL, which is coordinated by Dr. Edward Thomas, performs experiments on large groups of dust particles rather than individual grains.

"The characteristics that we will see from the individual dust particles can be calibrated and correlated and investigated in connection with (Thomas' results)," explained Dr. Mian Abbas, an MSFC scientist and the principal investigator for planned experiments dealing with optical characteristics of dust grains and their condensation processes. "We look at single particles and Dr. Thomas looks at large collections of particles, so the two are sort of the complements of each other."

Laboratory work is only one aspect of better understanding cosmic dust, Venturini continued.

"It's another facet to understanding the whole picture. You have the modeling, you've got the theory, you've got the observation from satellites, and then you need the lab work to help verify the other components."

Satellite missions with instruments for measuring interstellar dust - such as Cassini, Galileo, and STARDUST - have fuelled a surge of interest in such research over the last decade or so, Venturini said.

"Because of (the satellite data) they're realizing, 'Hey, these little dust particles are playing a much more important role than we thought before,'" Venturini said.