Visualization of Dust Explosion Under Microgravity Conditions

Nonviscous motion of a slow particle in a dust crystal under microgravity conditions.

Subsonic motion of a large particle moving through the bulk of a dust crystal formed by negatively charged small particles is investigated using the PK-3 Plus laboratory onboard the International Space Station. Tracing the particle trajectories shows that the large particle moves almost freely through the bulk of the plasma crystal, while dust particles move along characteristic α-shaped pathwa...

Frequency clustering in self-excited dust density waves under microgravity conditions

Bacterial biofilm formation under microgravity conditions.

Although biofilm formation is widely documented on Earth, it has not been demonstrated in the absence of gravity. To explore this possibility, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, suspended in sterile buffer, was flown in a commercial payload on space shuttle flight STS-95. During earth orbit, biofilm formation was induced by exposing the bacteria to sterile media through a 0.2-microm (pore size) polycarbon...

Dielectrophoretic Rayleigh-Bénard convection under microgravity conditions.

Thermal convection in a dielectric fluid layer between two parallel plates subjected to an alternating electric field and a temperature gradient is investigated under microgravity conditions. A thermoelectric coupling resulting from the thermal variation of the electric permittivity of the fluid produces the dielectrophoretic (DEP) body force, which can be regarded as thermal buoyancy due to an...

Ordering of dust particles in dusty plasmas under microgravity.

Structure formation of dust particles in dusty plasmas under microgravity has been simulated by the molecular dynamics method. It is shown that, at low temperatures, dust particles are organized into layered spherical shells. The number of shells is a function of the system size and the strength of screening by ambient plasma particles, while the dependency on the latter is much weaker. In the ...