The Production of Zodiacal Dust by Asteroids and Comets

Details The Production of Zodiacal Dust by Asteroids and Comets The Production of Zodiacal Dust by Asteroids and Comets

Sep 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004sptz.prop.2317s&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #2317

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Dust production in the asteroid belt has been recently demonstrated to arise primarily from the stochastic catastrophic disruption of small asteroids, making previous estimates based on an equilibrium collision model no longer valid. We propose to determine the relationship between asteroids and the zodiacal dust complex by measuring and detecting dust band structures 200 times fainter than the principal bands discovered by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite. We seek to relate these dust bands to specific source regions within the asteroid belt corresponding to recent and old collision events, and put limits on their dust production when dust bands are not correlated with them. This study is necessary to gain insight into how much of the zodiacal cloud is generated by asteroid collisions and the question of zodiacal cloud variability. An additional source of zodiacal dust is large particle emissions from comets, which stretch out into a narrow trail over a portion of their orbits. The net contribution of comets to the cloud is uncertain. These observations will give us the opportunity to search for dust trails associated with both known and unknown short-period comets, to assess the completeness of the known short-period comet population, and to constrain the contribution of comets to the zodiacal dust complex, in particular that contribution from as yet undiscovered comets. Towards this end, we will use the 24 micron MIPS array to scan two sets of five parallel strips of constant ecliptic longitude, on opposite sides of the ecliptic, roughly 90 degrees away from the galactic plane. Each set of 5 longitudinal strips will be scanned at two solar elongations. Each strip is 20 degrees long, centered about the ecliptic plane in latitude. The survey is designed to characterize and remove background cirrus and to identify and distinguish among structures arising from asteroid dust bands, partial dust bands, and comet dust trails and ascertain their specific locations.

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