Light-Field Motion Tracking in Laboratory Studies of Planet Formation

我们在天体化学组的关键科学驱动力之一是定性和定量地描述主导冰冷的小行星形成的早期状态的碰撞，以回答行星是如何形成的？我们的目标是成为世界上第一个开发和利用实验有效载荷来应对这一挑战的人，利用亚轨道飞行中的高质量，中等持续时间的微重力环境，研究纳米大小的冰粒集合体之间的亚厘米级碰撞，形成um-mm大小的蓬松冰聚集体，粘在一起形成cm大小的冰卵石。如果没有这些特定的微重力条件，我们的颗粒以低速沉积，聚集体散开或压实重量效应，并且没有足够的时间碰撞和聚集所有颗粒。

One of our key scientific drivers in the Astrochemistry group is to describe qualitatively and quantitatively the collisions that dominate the earlies states of icy planetesimal-formation, to answer how do planets form?We aim to be the first in the world to develop and exploit an experimental payload to address this challenge, taking advantage of the high-quality, medium-duration microgravity environments in sub-orbital flight, to study sub-cms collisions between ensembles of nm sized icy grains, forming um-mm sized fluffy ice aggregates, that stick to form cm sized icy pebble. Without these specific microgravity conditions, our particles sediment at the low velocities the aggregates fall apart or compact weight effects, and there is insufficient time to collide and aggregates all the particles.