> In April, a tiny particle smaller than a grain of sand struck Gaia at high speed. Known as a micrometeoroid, millions of these particles burn up in Earth’s atmosphere every day.
> This object, however, struck Gaia at a very high speed and at just the wrong angle, damaging the spacecraft’s protective cover.
How do they know all this? Did they perform some simulations to find out what kind of particle could have done the observed damage?
These satellites have pretty sophisticated Attitude Determination and Control Systems, whose whole job is to measure and reject disturbances. I'd guess the torque applied by the meteorite was found in the telemetry and they worked backwards from there.
> This object, however, struck Gaia at a very high speed and at just the wrong angle, damaging the spacecraft’s protective cover.
How do they know all this? Did they perform some simulations to find out what kind of particle could have done the observed damage?