A team of scientists at the Ames Research Center of NASA in Moffett Field, Calif., has successfully reproduced certain processes that occur in the atmosphere, including the creation of interstellar dust.
By using a unique and specialized laboratory facility dubbed the Cosmic Simulation Chamber (COSmIC), scientists can recreated and studied cosmic-like dust grains, similar to those that surround the dying stars. Learning more about the dust grains could help scientists to gather clues to gain better understanding of the universe's composition and evolution.
"The harsh conditions of space are extremely difficult to reproduce in the laboratory, and have long hindered efforts to interpret and analyze observations from space," said Farid Salama, project leader and one of the space science researchers at Ames, in a press release. "Using the COSmIC simulator we can now discover clues to questions about the composition and the evolution of the universe, both major objectives of NASA's space research program."
COSmIC works by integrating a variety of state-of-the-art instruments that help scientists simulate space conditions in a laboratory setting. Through this, process they can form and monitor simulated interstellar and planetary materials. The core of the system is the COSmIC chamber, where extreme conditions reigning in space are recreated. This is characterized by vacuum floating interstellar molecules and ions at densities that are billionths of the atmosphere on Earth, sub -270 degrees Fahrenheit average temperatures, ultraviolet covered environment, and star-emanated radiation that is very much visible.
"During COSmIC experiments, we are able to form and detect nanoparticles on the order of 10 nm size, grains ranging from 100-500 nanometers and aggregates of grains up to 1.5 micrometers in diameter, about a tenth the width of a human hair, and observe their structure with SEM, thus sampling a large size distribution of the grains produced," said Ella Sciamma-O'Brien of BAER Institute and a researcher at Ames in a press release.
These results could help researchers understand astronomical data that are gathered from the ALMA Observatory in Chile, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), and the Herschel Space Observatory.
