The CoPhyLab comet-simulation chamber Show others and affiliations
2021 (English) In: Review of Scientific Instruments, ISSN 0034-6748, E-ISSN 1089-7623, Vol. 92, no 11, p. 115102-115102Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The Comet Physics Laboratory (CoPhyLab) is an international research program to study the physical properties of cometary analog materials under simulated space conditions. The project is dedicated to studying, with the help of multiple instruments and the different expertise and background from the different partners, the physics of comets, including the processes inside cometary nuclei, the activity leading to the ejection of dust and gas, and the sub-surface and surface evolution of cometary nuclei when exposed to solar illumination. CoPhyLab will provide essential information on the formation and evolution of comets and insights into the origins of primitive Solar System bodies. To this end, we constructed a new laboratory that hosts several small-scale experiments and a large-scale comet-simulation chamber (L-Chamber). This chamber has been designed and constructed to host ice–dust samples with a diameter of up to 250 mm and a variable height between 100 and 300 mm. The cometary-analog samples will be kept at temperatures below 120 K and pressures around 10−6 mbar to ensure cometary-like conditions. In total, 14 different scientific instruments are attached to the L-Chamber to study the temporal evolution of the physical properties of the sample under different insolation conditions. Due to the implementation of a scale inside the L-Chamber that can measure weight changes of the samples with high precision, the cooling system is mechanically decoupled from the sample holder and cooling of the samples occurs by radiation only. The constructed chamber allows us to conduct uninterrupted experiments at low temperatures and pressures up to several weeks.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages American Institute of Physics (AIP), 2021. Vol. 92, no 11, p. 115102-115102
Keywords [en]
Instrumentation
National Category
Other Earth Sciences
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-88043 DOI: 10.1063/5.0057030 ISI: 000718151500004 PubMedID: 34852535 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85118993218 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-88043 DiVA, id: diva2:1615004
Funder German Research Foundation (DFG) 2021-11-292021-11-292025-02-07 Bibliographically approved