CODA (Collisions of Dust Aggregates) is a drop tower experiment in which cm-scale particles are launched at each other at low speeds to study the effects of different particle types on collision outcomes. CODA experiments are run inside a vacuum chamber that falls in our laboratory-scale drop tower facility which provides 0.7 s of free-fall. This enables lower impact velocities than what we can achieve with the table-top COBRA experiment. The science goals of CODA and COBRA are the same: to understand the dissipation of energy in collisions at low speeds between different kinds of particles relevant to the early stages of planet formation and the evolution of planetary ring systems.
Gallery
