SCIENCE: GOALS

What Are Dust Counters?
As the name implies, a dust counter is an instrument that counts particles of dust. There are various ways of making one work, but in the end, the instrument ususally collects information on mass, velocity, density, size, or some combination of those four. How does one work? Check the Design section of the website to find out!

The NH:SDC is hardly the first iteration of this concept. There are numerous other Dust Counters that have been sent into space or will be spent into space. Some examples are the Mars Dust Counter, the Munich Dust Counter, Pioneers 10 and 11, and Stardust (all of which are explained more in the Related Science Page).

What Makes the NH:SDC Different?

The Pioneer spacecraft only mapped dust out to about 18 AU. The NH: SDC on the other hand, will go out past 40 AU, more than doubling this distance! While this is certainly big, perhaps the biggest thing about the NH:SDC is that it was designed by students at the University of Colorado. The NH:SDC is what is known as a Secondary Science payload. This means that it was allowed to be placed on the NH Spacecraft as long as it didn't interfere with anything else. This is good news for students. It gives them a chance to put an experiment on a high-profile mission, while at the same time not needing to have doctorates to be able to do so.

What Do We Hope to Achieve?
The Student Dust Counter has 3 main goals. The first is to map the dust density distribution in the solar system. Dust is not spread evenly throughout space; instead, it varies in density throughout the Solar System. The first goal would be to get an accuate map of how this dust density varies.

The second goal of the Student Dust Counter is to understand variation in distribution of different sized particles. Do you only get big particles of dust close to the Sun? Or only far away from the Sun? Or are all sizes of particles scattered randomly about the Solar System? The SDC team hopes to be able to answer these questions after analysing the data from the mission.

The third main goal is to determine how fast the Kuiper Belt produces dust. The small, icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt are constantly colliding and causing little bits of each other to chip off. These little bits in turn hit each other and slowly grind into dust, in a somewhat similar fashion to how sand on a beach is created. The SDC team hopes to be able to find out how fast this is happening.

What Kind of Results Are We Expecting?
First off, we certainly hope that our data up to 18 AU agrees with that from other experiments like Pioneers 10 and 11. When making scientific measurements in a subject where something has already been measured, scientists usually hope that their data matches up with previously taken data. If data matches up, it usually means that scientists are on the right track, and that we are finally beginning to understand what it is we are looking at. If the data doesn't match up though, its not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that maybe there was something we didn't factor in or that we had the wrong idea to start with or maybe just made a mistake. More data will always help lead to more knowledge.

Out past 18 AU, we don't really know exactly what we'll find. Theorists are always coming up with theories, both strange and standard, about what's out there, but until a probe or satellite is sent, there's really no way of knowing. When the NH:SDC reaches the Kuiper Belt, it will be able to tell us whose theories are closest to being right. Once we know that, we can start looking at the data to see how well it matches and what the differences mean. So what is it we are expecting to find? Hopefully something that matches up with theory!

Why Should I Care?

The universe slowly recycles dust, moving it from one location to another. A dying star will send dust out into interstellar space. This dust can then collect with gas into clouds which slowly cool and become more dense. Eventually, these clouds of gas and dust contract to form new stars and planets, and the cycle begins again.

Because dust is found throughout the galaxy in numerous environments, it contains information about a vast quantity of sources. By studying the dust in our own solar system, we can learn about planets, moons, and comets in our own planetary system as well as about stars and nebulae much farther away. We can also learn about the processes which affect dust as it travels throughout space.

So why care? Because we are surrounded by the ashes of dead stars, and by studying these ashes we can learn a lot about the Universe that surrounds us.