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Notes:
This experiment is so recent, it was reported to me by a faxed preprint, so I do not have the journal or date. In this experiment, Toshiaki Yokota of Ehime University has suspended a permanent magnet by a wire, and rotated it to simulate Saturn’s rotation rate. Extremely fine dust is produced at the bottom of the 6-way cross vacuum chamber, by heating Aluminum in a crucible until it melts and vaporizes. Argon gas cools the vapor and condenses 0.5 micron sized Aluminum dust. The dust is charged with an ultraviolet light and the charged dust is captured by the magnetic field. The small hole and charged plates at the right are used to identify the charge to mass ratio of the dust, which he estimates to be about 25 electrons per grain. He uses a halogen lamp to illuminate the dust, and captures the pictures with a video camera. Unfortunately the gray-scale photograph did not fax well, but is convincing proof that the dust forms a flat ring around the spinning magnet, very similar to the Saturnian system.