ALBERT

Beschreibung: The purpose of the Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) is to advance our understanding of the Universe through the promotion of fundamental theoretical and experimental research into the underlying processes that drive the Cosmos. LAD represents all areas of astrophysics and planetary sciences. The first new AAS Division in more than 30 years, the LAD traces its history back to the recommendation from the scientific community via the White Paper from the 2006 NASA-sponsored Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop. This recommendation was endorsed by the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), which advises the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on selected issues within the fields of astronomy and astrophysics that are of mutual interest and concern to the agencies. In January 2007, at the 209th AAS meeting, the AAS Council set up a Steering Committee to formulate Bylaws for a Working Group on Laboratory Astrophysics (WGLA). The AAS Council formally established the WGLA with a five-year mandate in May 2007, at the 210th AAS meeting. From 2008 through 2012, the WGLA annually sponsored Meetings in-a-Meeting at the AAS Summer Meetings. In May 2011, at the 218th AAS meeting, the AAS Council voted to convert the WGLA, at the end of its mandate, into a Division of the AAS and requested draft Bylaws from the Steering Committee. In January 2012, at the 219th AAS Meeting, the AAS Council formally approved the Bylaws and the creation of the LAD. The inaugural gathering and the first business meeting of the LAD were held at the 220th AAS meeting in Anchorage in June 2012. You can learn more about LAD by visiting its website at http://lad.aas.org/ and by subscribing to its mailing list.

Beschreibung: A novel laboratory experimental design is described that will investigate the processing of dust grains in astrophysical shocks. Dust is a ubiquitous ingredient in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies; however, its evolutionary cycle is still poorly understood. Especially shrouded in mystery is the efficiency of grain destruction by astrophysical shocks generated by expanding supernova remnants. While the evolution of these remnants is fairly well understood, the grain destruction efficiency in these shocks is largely unknown. The experiments described herein will fill this knowledge gap by studying the dust destruction efficiencies for shock velocities in the range of approximately 10-30 kilometers per second (microns per nanosecond), at which most of the grain destruction and processing in the ISM takes place. The experiments focus on the study of grain-grain collisions by accelerating small (1 millimeter) dust particles into a large (approximately 5-10 millimeter diameter) population; this simulates the astrophysical system well in that the more numerous, small grains impact and collide with the large population. Facilities that combine the versatility of high-power optical lasers with the diagnostic capabilities of X-ray free-electron lasers, e.g., the Matter in Extreme Conditions instrument at the SLAC (originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) National Accelerator Laboratory, provide an ideal laboratory environment to create and diagnose dust destruction by astrophysically relevant shocks at the micron scale.