Energetic Particles

by Sherique Sherique

Energetic Particles

Energetic Particles are piece of matter that are moving very fast. The hotter the gas,the faster the move and the more energy each of them holds. Energetic Particles have been measured moving at speed as high as .99999999 times the speed of light. Energetic Particles includees protons, neutrons, neutrinos, thenuclei of atoms and other sub-atomic particles.

Electron Volts

Electron volts(eV) is a unit of energy used to describe the total energy carried by a particles.

.1 Ke V= 1 Kilo-electron volt= 1,000 eV
.1 Me V= 1 Mega-electron volt= 1 million eV
.1 Ge V= 1 Giga-electron volt= 1 billion eV

Energetic Particles Detector

Energetic Particles Detector(EPD) measures the intensity as a function of time, angles, and mass species for ions between 5 KeV and >1 MeV and for the electrons between 20 KeV and 1 MeV.EPD obtains "all-sky" views to eliminate space-time-angle aliasing while at the same time obtaining(1) fast ions to remotely sense boundaries, (2) fast electron to ascertain magnetic connectivity and (3) ion composition to quantify the remote boundary sensing and the ion acceleration processes.

Fly's Eye Energetic Particle Sensors

Fly's Eye Energetic Particle Sensors (FEEPS) provides fast "all-sky" total ion and electron measurements.It consists of a total of 16(8 ions and 8 electrons) Solid State Detector (SSD) "pin-hole" sensors clustered into 2 sensor heads. The 2 sensors are positioned diametrically opposite one another on the space-craft so that an "all-sky" views can be obtained instantaneously.FEEPS ion sensors and EIS proton measurements provide information needed to ascertain when caution is needed.FEEPS are time and trajectory ordered particle intensities organized into 3 and 4-dimensional parameter cubes: Energy* Species* Sensor and Energy* Species* Azimuth-Angle* Latitude-Angle.

Energetic Ion Spectrometer

Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS) provides ion composition and angular distributions. EIS proton measurements provide the information needed to ascertain periods of caution during unusually intense electron events. EIS is a Time-of-Flight (TOF) vs Pulse-Height (PH) sensor derived closely from the Energetic Particle Spectrometer (EPS) on MESSENGER