Student Dust Counter: Status report at 38 AU
Abstract
The Student Dust Counter (SDC) is an in-situ dust detector aboard the New Horizons spacecraft observing the distribution of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) with mass >10-12 g or approximately 0.5 μm in radius. New Horizons was launched on January 19th, 2006 and performed a fly-by of the Pluto system on July 14th, 2015. SDC has nearly continuously mapped the dust density distribution along the trajectory of New Horizons, and it continues to operate providing measurements of the IDP in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt (EKB). We present results of the dust density distribution from 1 to 38 AU and compare these measurements to existing theoretical models.
- Publication:
-
Icarus
- Pub Date:
- March 2019
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 2019Icar..321..116P
- Keywords:
-
- Interplanetary dust;
- PVDF;
- New Horizons;
- Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt