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Toward understanding the fate of dust lost from the Martian satellites
Author(s) -
Horanyi M.,
Burns J. A.,
Tatrallyay M.,
Luhmann J. G.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl017i006p00853
Subject(s) - martian , mars exploration program , astrobiology , solar wind , atmosphere of mars , perturbation (astronomy) , atmospheric sciences , halo , physics , cosmic dust , geophysics , environmental science , astronomy , geology , plasma , galaxy , quantum mechanics
We have investigated the dynamics of small dust grains ejected from the Martian satellites, considering both the solar radiation perturbation and electromagnetic forces since the grains move in a magrietized plasma. Lorentx forces can dramatically change the nature of the trajectories, resulting in, for example, prolonged for submicron‐slzed grains moving through our idealized iaodel. Though temporal changes of the solar wind were ignored and we only followed grains for 20 days or less, we suggest that a permanent, non‐uniform and time‐dependent dust halo of grains predominantly around 0.1 μm may exist about Mars.