On the Contribution of Asteroid Disruptions to the Interplanetary Dust Flux
Abstract
Recent modeling has shown the significant contribution of micron- to millimeter-sized particles released by the disruption of main-belt asteroids (MBAs) to the interplanetary dust particle (IDP) flux (e.g., Dermott et al., 2002; Nesvorný et al., 2003; Espy Kehoe et al., 2015). In this paper, we present the results of a study that indicates that the dust injected into the zodiacal cloud due to the catastrophic disruption of an asteroid is dominated by the release of its surface regolith particles. Our research suggests that disrupting a single asteroid with diameter O(100 km) will be enough to regenerate the entire zodiacal cloud. The breakup of smaller asteroids with diameters O(10 km) will likely produce more moderate, but still significant, changes in the dust environment of the inner solar system. As collisional disruptions of asteroids in this size range occur more frequently, it is important that we develop a better understanding of the injection of asteroidal material into the zodiacal cloud as a result of these type of events in order to determine the temporal evolution of the interplanetary dust flux. The results presented in this paper will lead to a better understanding of the threat to exploration activities due to the enhanced IDP flux resulting from the disruption of asteroidal regoliths. These findings can be employed to improve engineering models, for example, the NASA Meteoroid Engineering Model (MEM) that is widely utilized to assess the impact hazard to space hardware and activities in the inner solar system due to the natural meteoroid environment (McNamara et al., 2004). This is an important area of concern for current and future mission development purposes.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFM.P23B2730K
- Keywords:
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- 2129 Interplanetary dust;
- INTERPLANETARY PHYSICS;
- 6213 Dust;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS;
- 6245 Meteors;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS;
- 6265 Planetary rings;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS