| Introduction
Shock-wave data are essential for all studies related to collisional processes, including planetary accretion and impact crater formation. Impact experiments provide fundamental data on the physical properties of planetary materials and ground truth for numerical simulations of large-scale impact events and collisions in the solar system.
The research objectives in the Shock Compression Laboratory at Harvard are:
- to conduct laboratory-based exploration of the solar system by performing impact experiments on planetary materials under the pressures and temperatures of natural collision events, and
- to measure the dynamic response and equations of state of the rocks, minerals, and mixtures found on planetary surfaces and within small bodies in the solar system.
|
|
Current areas of research include:
- shock-wave measurements in basalt and basalt-ice mixtures to determine the outcome of impact events on Mars;
- magnetization and de-magnetization of minerals during shock with application to meteorites and lunar samples;
- thermal and chemical processing of comet analogs to study collisional evolution of cometesimals.
|
More information on research programs by the PI.
Learn More
The best introduction to impact cratering, including the fundamentals of shock physics, is H. J. Melosh's Impact Cratering, written at a level for senior undergraduates and higher.
The first shot on the new launch system was fired on October 12, 2003. The experimental facilities, equipment, and technical capabilities include:
- 40-mm single stage launch system with complete velocity coverage from 0.1-2.7 km/s and both a smooth and rifled barrel manufactured by Physics Applications Inc.;
- A walk-in cold laboratory for preparation and characterization of ice targets manufactured by Cincinnati Subzero Co.;
- Lagrangian shock-wave measurements using electromagnetic particle velocity gauges and pressure gauges;
- Velocity interferometry of shock transmission and release with a multi-probe Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector (VISAR) or line-imaging Optically Recording Velocity Interferometer System (ORVIS);
- Laser and contact pin intervalometers for projectile velocity measurements;
- Development of shock temperature measurement techniques below 1000 K;
- Development of cryogenic methods for cooling and recovery of samples at temperatures as low as 20 K;
- Computational facilities for shock-wave calculations (for experiment design and data interpretation) and planetary-scale collision simulations.
Our paper (PDF) at the 54th meeting of the Aeroballistc Range Association provides a technical overview of the laboratory.
|
More Pictures
|
|
The First Shots!
|
|
 |
Undergraduate, Graduate and Postdoctoral Positions. Individuals interested in planetary topics should contact Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay for more information.
Collaborative Research. Researchers with ideas for shockwave experiments should contact Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay to discuss the capabilities and availability of the lab.
|
» Laboratory Director:
Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay
Telephone: (617) 496-6462
|
» Laboratory Manager:
Lee Farina
Telephone: (617) 496-6406
|
The Shock Compression Laboratory at Harvard is partially funded through the NASA Office of Space Science Planetary Major Equipment Program.
Member of the Aeroballistic Range Association.
|
