You have probably seen shooting stars, or meteors, in the night sky, but have you ever wondered what happens to the meteoric material after it burns? Researchers in the Naval Research Laboratory's Space Science Division (SSD) are attempting to find out by directly sampling the smoke products thought to be produced by meteors as they burn. The project is called MAGIC: Mesospheric Aerosol: Genesis, Interaction and Composition.

Current theory suggests that up to 44 tons of small, grain-sized meteors burn or "ablate" in the upper atmosphere each day. It is thought that the products of this ablation process are even smaller, nanometer-sized, smoke particles (1/1000th the size of beach sand grains), which form a layer in the atmospheric region known as the mesosphere (50-90 km altitude). In turn these smoke particles are believed to be responsible for the nucleation of the mysterious and beautiful summertime phenomenon known as noctilucent clouds. These smoke particles may also be transported to lower altitudes in the atmosphere, such as the stratosphere (15-50 km altitude) where they may play a role in seeding polar stratospheric clouds, believed to be implicated in polar ozone depletion. Given the potential significance of these particles, it is surprising that they have never actually been detected. Indeed, the acronym for the NRL experiment, MAGIC, is a play on the comment of one scientist who termed these particles "magic dust".

In order to collect the suspected particles, an instrument was developed that is designed to be carried by rocket through the mesosphere. This instrument consists of many pins, which project out in front of the aerodynamic shock wave formed by the rocket. On the end of each of these pins is a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grid that captures particles. The pins are extended in turn as the rocket moves through the mesosphere, and each pin is then retracted into the detector housing and sealed for eventual ground-based analysis.

At 5:27 a.m. Swedish local time on January 10, an Improved Orion rocket carried the MAGIC instrument to a height of 95 km, along with other instruments developed by Stockholm University and the University of Colorado for measuring the ambient water vapor, temperature and charge particles. The payload was subsequently recovered and will be returned to the United States for analysis at NRL. A second flight of MAGIC is planned for March from Wallops Island, Virginia.

NRL's Dr. Frank Giovane and Stockholm University's Dr. Jorg Gumbel designed the MAGIC experiment, while Dr. Gumbel was a visiting scientist at NRL. Its development was funded by NASA's Office of Space Science NDPR S-06215-G in response to a Geospace Sciences, Low Cost Access to Space Section solicitation. The development team at NRL was led Dr. Tomas Waldemarsson, and the engineers Layne Marlin and John Moser. The scientific team is headed by NRL's Dr. David Siskind and involves researchers from the United States, Sweden, Gera number of, and England. The rocket was provided through funding from the Swedish National Space Board and supported by the University of Stockholm and the Swedish Space Corporation.

Posted By: Brooke