19 year old mystery in astrophysics - puts the evolution of neutron stars and galaxies in a new light. May 20, 1998. The science and mysteries of magnetars , the strongest magnets in the galaxy. Dust, the smallest of cosmological bodies, is assuming greater importance as we investigate its role in the making of planets and planetoids. In 1998, SSL established the Dusty Plasmas Laboratory, directed by Dr. James Spann, to study the behavior of single grains of dust in deep space.
Initial work focuses on how light electrically charges a single, smooth grain.
Graduate student Cathy Venturini prepares the Dusty Plasma Laboratory for a test run. From this, tests will expand to understand the effects on larger, irregular grains, and how charging causes grains to clump or separate in space. Results from the Dusty Plasmas Laboratory experiments will also help in understanding what is seen in the thick dust clouds in deep space where planets are slowly condensing. Infrared telescopes can see little of what is happening because the view is obscured by the very dust that eventually will become planets, comets, asteroids, or just the dust that, as in our solar system, reflects sunlight back to give the sky a slight glow along the plane of the planets. May 29, 1998.