Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p13d1715g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P13D-1715
Physics
[2129] Interplanetary Physics / Interplanetary Dust, [2194] Interplanetary Physics / Instruments And Techniques, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon
Scientific paper
Lunar microcrater analysis [Gruen et al., Icarus, 62, 244-272, 1985] showed that there is an excess of nanometer-sized craters over those expected from interplanetary grains. This excess has been interpreted as due to high-speed ejecta particles from bigger meteoroid impacts onto the lunar surface. Recently, the STEREO WAVES instruments recorded a large number of intense electric field signals, which were interpreted as impacts from nanometer sized particles striking the spacecraft with velocities of about the solar wind speed [Meyer-Vernet, N. et al., Solar Physics, 256, 463, 2009]. This high flux and strong spatial and/or temporal variations of nanometer sized dust grains appears to be uncorrelated with the solar wind properties. A new highly sensitive Nano Dust Analyzer is being developed within NASA's Heliophysics Program to confirm the existence of the so-called nano-dust particles, characterize their impact parameters, and measure their chemical composition. Such an instrument is placed on the moon can at the same time test the hypothesis of an enhanced high-speed ejecta flux near the lunar surface. The instrument is based on the Cassini Dust Analyzer, CDA [Srama, R. et al., SSR, 114, 465, 2004] and the LDEX instrument that is currently being developed to be flown on the LADEE mission to the Moon. By applying technologies implemented in solar wind instruments and coronagraphs the highly sensitive dust analyzer will be able to be pointed towards the solar direction. The measurements will enable us to identify the source of the dust by comparing their elemental composition with that of larger micrometeoroid particles of cometary and asteroid origin or with that of lunar regolith particles. In addition the flux direction of these different particle types will be significantly different: while high speed ejecta particles will arrive from shallow angles with respect to the lunar surface heliospheric nano-dust particles will arrive mostly from the solar hemisphere.
Auer Stefan
Collette A.
Gruen Eberhard
Horanyi Mihaly
Juhasz Andras
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