Meteoroid Engineering Model (MEM): A Meteoroid Model for the Inner Solar System (original) (raw)

The Interplanetary Meteoroid Environment for eXploration

The 'Interplanetary Meteoroid Environment for eXploration' (IMEX) project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), aims to characterize dust trails and streams produced by comets in the inner solar system. We are therefore developing a meteoroid stream model that consists of a large database of cometary streams from all known comets in the inner solar system. This model will be able to predict meteor showers from most known comets, that can be observed anywhere in the inner solar system, at any time 1980-2080. This is relevant for investigating meteor showers on the Earth, on other planets, or at spacecraft locations. Such assessment of the dust impact hazard to spacecraft is particularly important in the context of human exploration of the solar system.

The meteoroid environment near Earth

Advances in Space Research, 1997

An upgraded model of the interplanetary meteoroid environment, which is based on the 'Five populations of interplanetary meteoroids' model of , has been developed to synthesize data from in-situ detection by spacecraft, meteor observations, groundbased zodiacal light, and analysis of lunar microcraters. New model populations have been defined taking into account particle impact velocities and impact directions measured with GALILEO and ULYSSES dust detectors. Both, elliptical and hyperbolic meteoroid populations have been included considering the radiation pressure of the Sun. Particle fluxes for different mass thresholds have been calculated for surface elements of satellites retrieved from space (LDEF, EuReCa and HST solar array) taking into account both gravitational focusing and planetary shielding of the Earth.

Meteoroid impacts on spacecraft

Planetary and Space Science

This paper considers impact e}ects such as penetration damage and plasma generation on satellites in Low Earth and Geostationary orbits[ We characterise the spacecraft impact damage for the normal sporadic background and the annual meteoroid showers\ and\ especially consider the quantitative e}ects which would occur should the 0888 apparition of the Leonids reach {storm conditions|[ In this case\ the meteoroid shower has the damage potential which could exceed the sporadic meteoroid background by several orders of magnitude at peak[ Impact velocities are considered and formulae for penetration\ or\ plasma charge production are presented[ It is found that the Leonids exceed any other stream in terms of plasma current generation even under normal {quiescent| conditions[ Due to the~ux enhancement associated with a storm condition\ spacecraft could su}er up to one year|s worth of normal impact damage\ with a few spacecraft su}ering potentially catastrophic plasma discharge events\ and with the largest likely impact being able to penetrate of order 0 cm of solid aluminium[ Þ 0888 Elsevier Science Ltd[ All rights reserved[

Meteoroids and small sized debris in low earth orbit and at 1 AU: Results of recent modelling

Advances in Space Research, 1999

We present consolidated flux data from the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) and develop an isotropic meteoroid model applicable to predicting damage to the LDEF surfaces. The model is shown to work well, and is used to derive the resultant component of orbital debris incident on the LDEF east (ram) and west (wake) faces. Overall, orbital debris dominates the measured fluxes at small sizes (aluminium penetration depth F,,, < 30 pm) whereas meteoroids dominate above this size (see also McDonnell et al., 1997). The east and west face comparison shows that at least 2 distinct populations of debris exist with different size distributions.

Leonid Meteoroid Orbits Perturbed by Collisions with Interplanetary Dust

The Astrophysical Journal, 2005

By analyzing high-accuracy Leonid orbits obtained from multiple-station meteor observations during the 1998 outburst and 1999 storm, we have detected the presence of meteoroids with peculiar orbits. These meteoroids are characterized by having a geocentric radiant nearly identical to the members of the storm that appeared with them but showing different orbital elements owing to their lower geocentric velocities. The changes in some orbital elements are significant and allow us to interpret the cause of such differences. Mainly, the semimajor axis and the eccentricity of these anomalous orbits are lower than expected for members of the dust trail or members coming from the background component linked to the annual stream. From these characteristics it is likely that these peculiar meteoroids suffered some perturbations on very short timescales. We have investigated several causes, including planetary perturbations, collisions, and radiative effects in order to explain the observed orbital changes. We conclude that these orbital changes can be explained by the loss of orbital energy close to the ecliptic plane. Such an effect can only be explained clearly by collisions of the original meteoroids with dust particles associated with the zodiacal dust cloud. We have applied this hypothesis in order to constrain some physical properties of 55P/ Tempel-Tuttle cometary meteoroids.

The Dynamics of Meteoroid Streams

2002

Meteors are streaks of light seen in the upper atmosphere when particles from the interplanetary dust complex collide with the Earth. Meteor showers originate from the impact of a coherent stream of such dust particles, generally assumed to have been recently ejected from a parent comet. The parent comets of these dust particles, or meteoroids, fortunately, for us tend not to collide with the Earth. Hence there has been orbital changes from one to the other so as to cause a relative movement of the nodes of the meteor orbits and that of the comet, implying changes in the energy and/or angular momentum. In this review, we will discuss these changes and their causes and through this place limits on the ejection process. Other forces also come into play in the longer term, for example perturbations from the planets, and the effects of radiation pressure and Poynting-Robertson drag. The effect of these will also be discussed with a view to understanding both the observed evolution in some meteor streams. Finally we will consider the final fate of meteor streams as contributors to the interplanetary dust complex.

Helios spacecraft data revisited: Detection of cometary meteoroid trails by in-situ dust impacts

2020

Context. Cometary meteoroid trails exist in the vicinity of comets, forming fine structure of the interplanetary dust cloud. The trails consist predominantly of the largest cometary particles (with sizes of approximately 0.1 mm to 1 cm) which are ejected at low speeds and remain very close to the comet orbit for several revolutions around the Sun. In the 1970s two Helios spacecraft were launched towards the inner solar system. The spacecraft were equipped with in-situ dust sensors which measured the distribution of interplanetary dust in the inner solar system for the first time. When re-analysing the Helios data, Altobelli et al. (2006) recognized a clustering of seven impacts, detected by Helios in a very narrow region of space at a true anomaly angle of 135 ± 1 • , which the authors considered as potential cometary trail particles. At the time, however, this hypothesis could not be studied further. Aims. We re-analyse these candidate cometary trail particles in the Helios dust data to investigate the possibility that some or all of them indeed originate from cometary trails and we constrain their source comets. Methods. The Interplanetary Meteoroid Environment for eXploration (IMEX) dust streams in space model is a new universal model for cometary meteoroid streams in the inner solar system, developed by Soja et al. (2015b). We use IMEX to study cometary trail traverses by Helios. Results. During ten revolutions around the Sun, the Helios spacecraft intersected 13 cometary trails. For the majority of these traverses the predicted dust fluxes are very low. In the narrow region of space where Helios detected the candidate dust particles, the spacecraft repeatedly traversed the trails of comets 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková and 72P/Denning-Fujikawa with relatively high predicted dust fluxes. The analysis of the detection times and particle impact directions shows that four detected particles are compatible with an origin from these two comets. By combining measurements and simulations we find a dust spatial density in these trails of approximately 10 −8 m −3 to 10 −7 m −3. Conclusions. The identification of potential cometary trail particles in the Helios data greatly benefitted from the clustering of trail traverses in a rather narrow region of space. The in-situ detection and analysis of meteoroid trail particles which can be traced back to their source bodies by spacecraft-based dust analysers opens a new window to remote compositional analysis of comets and asteroids without the necessity to fly a spacecraft to or even land on those celestial bodies. This provides new science opportunities for future missions like Destiny + , Europa Clipper and IMAP.

Meteor-shower complex of asteroid 2003 EH1 compared with that of comet 96P/Machholz

Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2013

Aims. We studied the structure of the meteoroid particle complexes released from asteroid 196 256 (2003 EH1) to reveal the relationship to the meteor showers observed in Earth's atmosphere that belong to this complex as well. In addition, we studied the relationship between the asteroid and comet 96P/Machholz, which is situated in the same orbital phase space. Methods. For nine perihelion passages of the parent asteroid in the past, we modeled the associated theoretical streams and followed their dynamical evolution until the present. Subsequently, we analyzed the orbital characteristics of the modeled streams, especially of the parts that approach Earth's orbit. Results. We confirm the filamentary structure of the complex, which is qualitatively identical to the complex of 96P. Six wellestablished and two minor filaments approach the orbit of the Earth, producing four well-known meteor showers, daytime Arietids, Southern δ-Aquarids, Quadrantids, and Northern δ-Aquarids.