Creating 'PLANETS' in a laboratory: How particles clump together to create new worlds observed for the first time
- Observation of how particles attract others has been difficult to achieve
- Stream of charged particles was filmed in free-fall to simulate low gravity
- Particles of dust were seen clumping together into 'granular molecules'
- Electrostatic interactions were thought to play a part in early planetary formation, but never directly observed before
When stars die they eject particles and gases in dramatic supernovae or glow for millennia as majestic planetary nebulae.
Ejected dust and gas from these cosmic events eventually clump together to form new planets and stars, beginning the cosmic cycle all over again.
And now for the first time, scientists have observed in the laboratory how this process starts, as single grains of dust attract one another in low gravity conditions.
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The team observed how charged grains of dust in their mutual electrostatic interactions can undergo attractive as well as repulsive trajectories similar to planetary orbits (pictured)
Direct observation of how charged particles attract each other and form into clumps in the early stages of planetary formation has been difficult to achieve.
But now physicists at the University of Chicago led by graduate student Victor Lee have found a way around the problem by conducting experiments in free-fall, simulating a low gravity scenario.
This was achieved by observing a stream of particles in free-fall using a high-speed camera that is falling alongside them.
The team observed how charged grains of dust in their mutual electrostatic interactions can undergo attractive as well as repulsive trajectories similar to planetary orbits.
Particles of dust were observed clumping together into 'granular molecules', similar to chemical molecules but comprised of dust grains.
'This can have implications for the very earliest stages of planet formation, which is believed to start via collisions among interstellar dust grains,' said Professor Heinrich Jaeger who co-authored the study.
'Single head-on collisions typically do not dissipate enough energy to lead to sticking.'
It has long been suspected that electrostatic interactions play a part in making colliding particles stick together rather than bouncing off each other in the early stages of planetary formation.
Electrostatic interactions are what makes balloons stick to walls when they have been rubbed with a cloth.
When any two objects rub together, there is usually an exchange of electrostatic charge. But when these objects are not good conductors of electricity, the charge can effectively get stuck on the surface, leading to attractive forces until the charge dissipates.
The Chicago team has now observed in detail, for the first time, cluster growth by successive capture of individual particles via long-range electrostatic interactions.
Particles of dust were observed clumping together into 'granular molecules', similar to chemical molecules but comprised of dust grains (pictured)
In related work, a team led by University of Chicago’s Karl Freed and Juan de Pablo has completed calculations that explain some of the 'granular molecule' configurations observed by Lee's team.
'One thing their paper makes clear is that the effects we were able to track directly with the granular material have wide-ranging importance for much smaller particles, including colloids, nanoparticles and molecules,' Jaeger said.
In addition to shedding light on how planets form in the earliest stages of their lifetime, the research also has important implications for understanding how airborne pollution coagulates, as well as a wide range of phenomenon in biophysics and chemistry.
Direct observation of how charged particles attract each other and form into clumps in the early stages of planetary formation has been difficult to achieve. But now physicists led by graduate student Victor Lee have solved the problem by conducting experiments in free-fall, simulating a low gravity scenario (pictured)
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