Capture of interplanetary and interstellar dust by the jovian magnetosphere.
Interplanetary and interstellar dust grains entering Jupiter's magnetosphere form a detectable diffuse faint ring of exogenic material. This ring is composed of particles in the size range of 0. 5 to 1.5 micrometers on retrograde and prograde orbits in a 4:1 ratio, with semimajor axes 3 < a < 20 jovian radii, eccentricities 0. 1 < e < 0.3, and inclinations i less, similar 20 degrees or i greater, similar 160 degrees. The size range and the orbital characteristics are consistent with in situ detections of micrometer-sized grains by the Galileo dust detector, and the measured rates match the number densities predicted from numerical trajectory integrations.
Colwell
J E
JE
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0392, USA. colwell@casper.colorado.edu
Horányi
M
M
Grün
E
E
D019443:Cosmic Dust; D018538:Jupiter
D019443:Cosmic Dust