Related papers: Wind--Pellet Shear Sailing
Pulsars have mean space velocities >~500 km/s. The consequent ram pressure results in tight confinement of the star's energetic wind, driving a bow shock into the surrounding medium. Pulsar bow shocks have long been regarded as a curiosity,…
Lightsail spacecraft, propelled to relativistic velocities via photon pressure using high power density laser radiation, offer a potentially new route to space exploration within and beyond the solar system, extending to interstellar…
In Coulomb drag propulsion, a long high voltage tether or system of tethers gathers momentum from a natural plasma stream such as solar wind or ionospheric plasma ram flow. A positively polarised tether in the solar wind can be used for…
A highly reflective sail provides a way to propel a spacecraft out of the solar system using solar radiation pressure. The closer the spacecraft is to the Sun when it starts its outward journey, the larger the radiation pressure and so the…
In-situ measurements by several spacecraft have revealed that the solar wind is frequently perturbed by transient structures (magnetic folds, jets, waves, flux-ropes) that propagate rapidly away from the Sun over large distances. Parker…
Solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) directed at the Earth often drive large geomagnetic storms. Here we use velocity, magnetic field and proton density data from 152 CMEs that were sampled in-situ at 1 AU by the WIND spacecraft. We Fourier…
The concept of exploring space using solar power is energetically appealing, but interstellar solar sails typically require extremely low areal densities (~g/m^2). This work explores an alternative approach: storing solar energy as…
The Solar sail is a large thin film used to collect solar light pressure for moving of space apparatus. Unfortunately, the solar radiation pressure is very small about 9 mkN/sq.m at Earth's orbit. However, the light force significantly…
We present a study of the mechanical power generated by both winds and jets across the black hole mass scale. We begin with the study of ionized X-ray winds and present a uniform analysis using Chandra grating spectra. The high quality…
Periodic sediment patterns have been observed on Earth in riverbeds and sand and snow deserts, but also in other planetary environments. One of the most ubiquitous patterns, familiar wind or 'impact' ripples, adorns sand beaches and arid…
Observations of nearby molecular clouds detect "shells", which are likely caused by winds from young main sequence stars. However, the progenitors of these observed features are not well characterized and the mass-loss rates inferred from…
Sheaths ahead of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large heliospheric structures that form with CME expansion and propagation. Turbulent and compressed sheaths contribute to the acceleration of particles in the corona and in interplanetary…
The WISPR imager on Parker Solar Probe provides a unique view the young solar wind, flying through solar wind structures at high speed. It is of interest to use WISPR image sequences to measure the velocity of both large features (such as…
We investigate the motion of the primary beam outside the light cylinder in the pulsar wind. Inside the light cylinder both primary and secondary plasma move along dipole magnetic field lines where their energies can be arbitrary. But at…
Successful models of the low redshift circumgalactic medium (CGM) must account for (1) a large amount of gas, (2) relatively slow gas velocities, (3) a high degree of metal enrichment, (4) the similar absorption properties around both…
The shape of a rotating electric solar wind sail under the centrifugal force and solar wind dynamic pressure is modeled to address the sail attitude maintenance and thrust vectoring. The sail rig assumes centrifugally stretched main tethers…
We compare the angular momentum extracted by a wind from a pre-main-sequence star to the torques arising from the interaction between the star and its Keplerian accretion disk. We find that the wind alone can counteract the spin-up torque…
Energy and momentum feedback from stars is a key element of models for galaxy formation and interstellar medium dynamics, but resolving the relevant length scales to directly include this feedback remain out of reach of current-generation…
Planetary migration is a key link between planet formation models and observed exoplanet statistics. So far the theory of migration has focused on the interaction of planets with an inviscid or viscously evolving disk. Turbulent viscosity…
The increasing velocity and frequency of space missions necessitate advancements in spacecraft protection technologies to ensure mission success and the safety of onboard systems and personnel. Existing shielding solutions, including…