Sigrid close known universe national geographic
•
(Phys.org)—New research by Stanford aeronautics and astronautics Assistant Professor Sigrid Close suggests she's on track to solve a mystery that has long bedeviled space exploration: Why do satellites fail?
In the popular imagination, satellites are imperiled by impacts from "space junk" – particles of man-made debris the size of a pea (or greater) that litter the Earth's upper atmosphere – or by large meteoroids like the one that recently exploded spectacularly over Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Although such impacts are a serious concern, most satellites that have died in space haven't been knocked out by them. Something else has killed them.
The likely culprit, it turns out, is material so tiny its nickname is "space dust."
These natural micro-meteoroids are not directly causing satellites harm. When they hit an object in space, however, they are traveling so fast that they turn into a quasi-neutral gas of ions and electrons known as plasma. That plasma, Close theorizes, has the potential to create a radio signal that can damage, and even completely shut down, the satellites they hit.
The signal is an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP – similar in concept but not in size to what is generated by nuclear detonations. (Tellingly, a massive EMP knocked out cell phones when the Che
•
Outreach
TV/Public Appearances
2015
Strangest Climate ailing on Earth: Episode 8 Season 3, The Weather conditions Channel, Nov 1
Strangest Sickly on Earth: Episode 5 Season 3, The Out of sorts Channel, Oct 11
Nova: Chasing Pluto - PBS, July 15
2012
Meteors! - Stanford eDay lecture, July 21
2011
Sigrid Accommodate co-hosted Official Geographic's Proverbial Universe far ahead with astronaut Michael Massimino. [Stanford Account interview]
Meteoroid Threats to Spacecraft - SETI invitational lecture, Possibly will 4
Space Dangers - NOVA ScienceNow, January 19
In The News
2017
The Sneaky 1 of Opening Dust, Scientific American podcast, May 11
Why space scrap emits transistor waves incursion crashing thud a spacecraft, Phys.org, May 2
NASA Could Cleanse a Miniaturized Satellite look after Test Galilean Moon's Rubbish and Radiation, Seeker, April 10
Tiny Asteroid-Mining Scouts Could Con Space-Dust Strikes, Space.com, February 6
2014
President Obama selects two University engineers bring forward early job award, Stanford Study, January 8
2013
To catch a shooting star, Stanford Magazine, November
Better origami start burning nature presentday maths, BBC, Can 10
Close Conquests Early Employment Award pass up Department personal Energy - University Engineering, Can 8
How quick pack a big solar sail
•
Sigrid Close
Sigrid Close is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, where she heads up the Space Environment and Satellite Systems laboratory.Prior to joining Stanford, she was a project leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a technical staff member at M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory where she led a program to characterize meteoroids and meteoroid plasma using high-power radars.Her honors and awards include the following:Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), NSF CAREER Award, DOE CAREER Award, Award of Excellence from the United States of America for Exceptional Efforts in Meteoroid Plasma Analysis and Modeling, Hellman Scholar, featured in IEEE Spectrum April 2010, featured on the cover of IEEE Spectrum in February 2008, Joe D. Marshall Award given by AFTAC for Outstanding Technical Briefing, M.I.T. Lincoln Scholar from 2000 through 2004, and first place in the student paper competition at the International Union of Radio Science in 2002.She was a panel member of the National Research Council’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and Space Studies Board: Near Earth Objects Mitigation in 2009, and the National Research Council’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and Spac