Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 26 March 1971:
Vol. 171. no. 3977, pp. 1237 - 1239
DOI: 10.1126/science.171.3977.1237
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Solar Particle Tracks in Glass from the Surveyor 3 Spacecraft

G. Crozaz 1 and R. M. Walker 1

1 Laboratory for Space Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130

A glass filter from Surveyor 3 has a surface density of sim1 x 106 tracks per square centimeter from heavy solar flare particles. The variation with depth is best fitted with a solar particle spectrum dN/dE = 2.42 x 106 E-2 [in particles per square centimeter per year per steradian per (million electron volts per nucleon)], where E is the energy and N is the number of particles, from 2 million electron volts per nucleon to sim7 million electron volts per nucleon and dN/dE = 1.17 x 107 E-3 at higher energies. Not much difference is observed between 0.5 and 5 micrometers, an indication that there is a lack of track-registering particles below 0.5 million electron volts per nucleon. The Surveyor data are compatible with track results in lunar rocks, provided an erosion rate of sim10-7 centimeter per year is assumed for the latter. The results also suggest a small-scale erosion process in lunar rocks.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Electron Microscopy of Irradiation Effects in Space.
M. Maurette and P. B. Price (1975)
Science 187, 121-129
   PDF »
Ultrathin Amorphous Coatings on Lunar Dust Grains.
J. P. Bibring, J. P. Bibring, J. P. Duraud, L. Durrieu, C. Jouret, M. Maurette, and R. Meunier (1972)
Science 175, 753-755
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)