On the left is an interstellar dust grain returned by the Long Duration Exposure Facility, and on the right a polystyrene ball used in Dusty Plasma Laboratory tests. The images are not to scale but show the complex geometries of dust grains which we perceive as just spots. Web Links Dusty Plasma Laboratory home page includes technical papers and more illustrations. Asteroids, too small to exert enough gravity to capture dust, may instead attract it with static electricity, providing a storehouse of primordial matter in the solar system and suggesting an intriguing twist on planetary formation theory. Astrophysicists start giving more attention to the smallest of astronomical bodies - dust particles.
New lab studies death of stars, origin of planets.
Venturini noted that a number of scientists have reported detecting aluminum oxide in low Earth orbit. When such motors are burned by rockets raising a satellite's orbit, aluminum oxide grains are left in lower orbits. Among the observations they have made are the rates at which grains change electrical charges and try to become neutral. That has to do with when a electron beam is bombarding the grain, it will cause the lattice or internal structure to emit electrons. But the dust grain interacts with its environment along many different paths, and eventually should reach a constant potential.