The Research Projects

Science, Code S

Airborne observations of natural and artificial meteors
Principal Investigator: Peter Jenniskens, Ph.D., The SETI Institute.

This research is dedicated to the investigation on August 12, 2008, of a rare encounter of Earth with the 1479-dust ejected by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Swift-Tuttle is the parent comet of the August Perseid shower. In order to measure the dust denstiy in the stream on top of a strong annual shower background and in moonlight conditions, airborne observations are planned to observe the anticipated brief outburst of Perseids from a Gulfstream V business jet at 49,000 ft altitude. The high altitude perspective offers a low-atmospheric-exinction view over a large surface area near the horizon.

In an unrelated effort, an airborne campaign is being organized to observe the reentry in Earth's atmosphere of a 20-ton space vehicle in the South Pacific. This investigation is focussed on learning how the object breaks during entry and what are the physical conditions in each meteor created by the debris fragments. The exact date of the reentry is not known at this time, but it is expected to be some time in September of 2008, or perhaps as early as late August.

The student will work with principal investigator Dr. Peter Jenniskens, author of the 2006 book "Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets" (Cambridge University Press). Several research opportunities are available over the summer, depending on the inclination of the student. These include:

(1) Hands-on experience with the adapting and using of spectrographic cameras for the study of natural and artificial meteors.
(2) Development of interactive software tools and the analysis of meteor spectra.
(3) Participation in the analysis of past spectroscopic observations of meteors and preparation of the results for publication.

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