CU-Boulder student cosmic dust experiment part of Pluto flyby on July 14
Friday July 10, 2015
BOULDER -- Some University of Colorado-Boulder students, faculty and alumni will be closely watching the July 14 visit to Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft now approaching the solar system’s most distant planet.
A team of CU-Boulder students designed, built and tested the Student Dust Counter (SDC) for the mission to measure dust particles along the way to Pluto.
The SDC is the first student-built-and-operated instrument ever to fly on a NASA planetary mission, CU said.
“We have waited a long time for this,” said CU-Boulder physics professor Mihaly Horanyi of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) on the CU campus.
From 2002 to 2005 Horanyi led a revolving group of about 20 students as they developed the SDC, which is helping scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of the solar system and the formation of planets.
The SDC is a thin plastic film resting on a honeycombed aluminum structure the size of a cake pan mounted on the New Horizons’ exterior. A small electronic box inside the spacecraft assesses each individual dust particle that strikes the detector.
The Pluto flyby will give the first detailed look at the planet’s surface.
“The flyby also is an emotional capstone for all the students who worked on SDC,” said Horanyi. “They have moved on to have families and kids and busy lives, but I know that all of them will closely follow the encounter and remember their contributions with tremendous pride.”
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