Related papers: Microgravity experiments on the collisional behavi…
In this work, we report on microgravity studies of particle ensembles simulating ice-particle collisions in Saturn's dense main rings. We have developed an experimental method to study the energy dissipation in a many-body system consisting…
Planetisimals are thought to be formed from the solid material of a protoplanetary disk by a process of dust aggregation. It is not known how growth proceeds to kilometre sizes, but it has been proposed that water ice beyond the snowline…
We performed micro-gravity collision experiments in our laboratory drop-tower using 5-cm-sized dust agglomerates with volume filling factors of 0.3 and 0.4, respectively. This work is an extension of our previous experiments reported in…
Collisional evolution is a key process in planetesimal formation and decimetre bodies play a key role in the different models. However, the outcome of collisions between two dusty decimetre bodies has never been studied experimentally.…
To reveal the formation of planetesimals it is of great importance to understand the collision behavior of the dusty and icy aggregates they have formed from. We present an experimental setup to investigate the aggregation properties in…
In order to improve our understanding of landing on small bodies and of asteroid evolution, we use our novel drop tower facility to perform low-velocity (2-40 cm s^-1), shallow impact experiments of a 10 cm diameter aluminum sphere into…
We discuss the design, operation, and performance of a vacuum setup constructed for use in zero (or reduced) gravity conditions to initiate collisions of fragile millimeter-sized particles at low velocity and temperature. Such particles are…
Saturn's rings are composed of icy grains, most in the mm to m size ranges, undergoing several collisions per orbit. Their collective behaviour generates a remarkable array of structure over many orders of magnitude, much of it not well…
The experiments presented aim to measure the outcome of collisions between sub-mm sized protoplanetary dust aggregate analogues. We also observed the clusters formed from these aggregates and their collision behaviour. The experiments were…
The current model of planet formation lacks a good understanding of the growth of dust particles inside the protoplanetary disk beyond mm sizes. In order to investigate the low-velocity collisions between this type of particles, the…
We investigate the influence of collective self-gravity forces on the nonlinear, large-scale evolution of the viscous overstability in Saturn's rings. We numerically solve the axisymmetric hydrodynamic equations in the isothermal and…
To gain a better understanding of the surfaces of planets and small bodies in the solar system, the flow behavior of granular material for various gravity levels is of utmost interest. We performed a set of reduced-gravity measurements to…
Linear theory is used to determine the stability of the self-gravitating, rapidly (and nonuniformly) rotating, two-dimensional, and collisional particulate disk against small-amplitude gravity perturbations. A gas-kinetic theory approach is…
We detail a platform for partial g environment and an experiment for simulated impacts on asteroid surfaces based on it. The partial g environment is created by a two stage approach: First, create microgravity using the ZARM drop tower.…
Over the past years the processes involved in the growth of planetesimals have extensively been studied in the laboratory. Based on these experiments, a dust-aggregate collision model was developed upon which computer simulations were based…
Collisions between centimeter- to decimeter-sized dusty bodies are important to understand the mechanisms leading to the formation of planetesimals. We thus performed laboratory experiments to study the collisional behavior of dust…
We developed an experiment to study different aspects of granular matter under microgravity. The 1.5U small experiment was carried out on the International Space Station. About 3500 almost identical spherical glass particles with 856 um…
We study the B ring's complex optical depth structure. The source of this structure may be the complex dynamics of the Keplerian shear and the self-gravity of the ring particles. The outcome of these dynamic effects depends sensitively on…
We conducted micro-gravity experiments to study the outcome of collisions between sub-mm-sized dust agglomerates consisting of \mu m-sized SiO2 monomer grains at velocities of several cm/s. Prior to the experiments, we used X-ray computer…
Many small moonlets, creating propeller structures, have been found in Saturn's rings by the Cassini spacecraft. We study the dynamical evolution of such 20-50m sized bodies which are embedded in Saturn's rings. We estimate the importance…