A DEVICE that keeps aspiring drummers from annoying their neighbours will soon be helping astronomers peer into the origins of the solar system. Researchers will use sensors normally found in drummers’ electronic practice pads to analyse the source of space dust and gauge the danger that micrometeorites pose to the International Space Station.
Today micrometeorites are captured on the ISS with a 25-centimetre-wide patch of aerogel, a spongy substance made of silica whose volume is nearly all empty space. Researchers periodically retrieve the patch to study the chemical composition of its contents. But chemical analysis of small particles is difficult,…
