US Patent Issued to The Regents of The University of Michigan on June 23 for "Method for detection of non-thermal radiation by colliding debris" (Michigan Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,662,260, issued on June 23, was assigned to The Regents of The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

"Method for detection of non-thermal radiation by colliding debris" was invented by Nilton O. Renno (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system and method for detecting space debris which is based on measurements of broadband non-thermal radiation and/or light emitted by either sparks or the expansion of the plasma-fragments cloud generated during high-speed collisions of solid materials. The method is based on the concept that broadband nonthermal radiation and/or light can be used to detect the formation of new debris...