Fundamental Physics

Clues to the formation of planets and planetary rings -- like Saturn's dazzling ring system -- may be found by studying how dust grains interact as they collide at low speeds. To study the question of low-speed dust collisions, NASA sponsored the COLLisions Into Dust Experiment (COLLIDE) at the University of Colorado. It was designed to spring-launch marble-size projectiles into trays of powder similar to space or lunar dust. COLLIDE-1 (1998) discovered that collisions below a certain energy threshold eject no material. COLLIDE-2 was designed to identify where the threshold is. In COLLIDE-2, scientists nudged small projectiles into dust beds and recorded how the dust splashed outward (video frame at top; artist's rendering at bottom). The slowest impactor ejected no material and stuck in the target. The faster impactors produced ejecta; some rebounded while others stuck in the target.

Date: 2003-01-22
Collection: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Archive: NASA Image and Video Library
Type: illustration (NASA artwork)

More from this collection: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center photos from the 2000s