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A Spacelab experiment on the critical ionization velocity
Author(s) -
Möbius E.,
Boswell R. W.,
Piel A.,
Henry D.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl006i001p00029
Subject(s) - ionization , physics , critical ionization velocity , cosmic cancer database , plasma , cosmic ray , computational physics , astrophysics , mechanics , classical mechanics , astronomy , ion , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics
Although the existence of a critical ionization velocity has been shown in laboratory experiments certain difficulties remain when one tries to scale the parameters to cosmic dimensions. These problems are discussed in the light of recent theoretical developments, and a possible experiment is described which makes use of the high orbital velocity of spacelab and the large uniform plasma through which it travels.