Interactions between Interstellar Dust Grains and the Heliosphere

Details Interactions between Interstellar Dust Grains and the Heliosphere Interactions between Interstellar Dust Grains and the Heliosphere

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21442404f&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #424.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.693

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We report the results of modeling the three-dimensional distribution of interstellar dust grains (ISDG) interacting with the heliosphere. Interstellar material (ISM) flows through the heliosphere. The magnetized plasma of the solar wind has the effect of a natural mass spectrometer, so that the trajectories of individual charged grains are shaped by Lorentz forces, as well as gravity and radiation pressure. Grain charge has been calculated based on a MHD-plasma/kinetic-neutral model of the heliosphere that incorporates the asymmetries introduced by the ambient interstellar magnetic field. Grain surface potentials are evaluated for a range of grain sizes. The steep jump in grain potential that is found in the outer heliosphere beyond the termination shock is due to charging processes that include secondary electron ejection. The smallest grains are deflected around the heliosphere, while the largest grains are gravitationally focused downstream of the Sun. Understanding the 3D distribution of ISDGs at and inside of the heliosphere is the first step in evaluating possible heliospheric foreground contributions to the cosmic infrared and microwave background radiation. The authors thank NASA for support of this project through grant NNX08AJ33G.

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