Resonant Trapping and Subsequent Accretion of Interplanetary Dust Particles Through Earth's Quasi-Satellite Resonance

Details Resonant Trapping and Subsequent Accretion of Interplanetary Dust Particles Through Earth's Quasi-Satellite Resonance Resonant Trapping and Subsequent Accretion of Interplanetary Dust Particles Through Earth's Quasi-Satellite Resonance

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.1702k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #17.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.978

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We used numerical integration to study the orbital evolution of IDPs decaying towards 1 AU under the influence of radiation pressure, Poynting-Roberston light drag, solar wind drag, and perturbations from the planets. The ratio of radiation pressure to solar gravity was β=0.005, corresponding to IDP diameters of about 100 microns. In our initial simulation 100% of the IDPs became temporarily trapped in mean-motion resonances just outside Earth's orbit. Eventually the particles slipped out of these resonances and their orbits continued decaying. Subsequently, 25% of the population became trapped in 1:1 co-orbital resonance with Earth. In addition to traditional horseshoe type co-orbitals, IDPs became trapped as so-called quasi-satellites. Quasi-satellite IDPs always remain relatively near Earth (0.2-0.3 AU, or 20-30 Hill radii, Rh) and undergo two close-encounters with Earth each year. While resonant perturbations from Earth halt the decay in semi-major axis of quasi-satellite IDPs their eccentricities continue to decrease, forcing the IDPs onto more Earth-like orbits. This has dramatic consequences for the relative velocity and distance of closest approach between Earth and the IDPs. After 104 years in the quasi-satellite resonance IDPs are typically less than 10 Rh from Earth and consistently coming within about 3 R. In the late stages of quasi-satellite evolution IDPs escaping the resonance can have deep close-encounters with Earth significantly below Rh. Relative velocities between escaping quasi-satellite IDPs and Earth during these encounters are a few hundred m/s, well below the 2-4 km/s for non-resonant IDPs with similar initial orbits. This factor alone leads to about a 10-100 fold increase in Earth's gravitational cross-section for quasi-satellite IDPs compared to non-resonant IDPs. Because quasi-satellite resonant trapping varies directly with a planet's eccentricity, accretion of quasi-satellite IDPs will likely vary proportionally with Earth's eccentricity on 105 year time scales. [This work is supported by NASA grant NNX10AJ61G.]

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