Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Detection of Dust around Mars and its Implications


Affiliations
1 Physical Research Laboratory, PLANEX, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad 380 009, India
 

Recent observations of MAVEN find dust to be present at altitudes from ~150 to 1000 km from the Mars surface. It is expected that it could be interplanetary in nature, based on assumption of particle velocity. Existence of dust at orbital altitudes on Mars could be mainly due to two plausible sources, viz. interplanetary dust and Phobos/Deimos-originated dust. Dust devils prevailing near the surface can lift the dust to a few tens of kilometres and at present, no physical process can explain dust transport to high altitudes (>50 km) from the dust devils. Another possible source of dust around Mars could be interstellar in nature; however, its possibility is rare. Dust originating from Phobos/Deimos could be either due to secondary ejecta created by continuous bombardment of micrometeorites or due to grain levitation. Though dust levitation on the Moon is yet to be confirmed by in-situ measurements, it is expected that it should occur on the airless bodies. The velocity of secondary ejecta and that of levitated dust can exceed the escape velocity of Phobos/Deimos and cause the dust to escape into outer space. Such escaping particles can form dust ring/torus around Phobos/Deimos and therefore also around Mars. The dust ring/torus is yet to be studied and fully understood. Observations of dust, whether originating from Phobos/Demos or interplanetary dust particles, are necessary for finding its origin, abundance and distribution around Mars. This article discusses the existence of high-altitude (>100 km) dust around Mars, and techniques for the detection of these dust particles using an impact ionization detector in a future Mars orbiter mission.

Keywords

Dust Devils, Mars, Natural Satellites, Torus.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Balme, M. and Greeley, R., Dust devils on Earth and Mars. Rev. Geophys., 2006, 44(3), 22.

  • Thomas, P. and Gierasch, P. J., Dust devils on Mars. Science, 1985, 230(4722), 175–177.

  • Metzger, S. M., Carr, J. R., Johnson, J. R., Parker, T. J. and Lemmon, M. T., Dust devil vortices seen by the Mars Pathfinder camera. Geophys. Res. Letts., 1999, 26(18), 2781–2784.

  • Cantor, B. A., Kanak, K. M. and Edgett, K. S., Mars orbiter camera observations of martian dust devils and their tracks (September 1997 to January 2006) and evaluation of theoretical vortex models. J. Geophys. Res., 2002, 111(E1), 49.

  • Stanzel, C., Patzold, M., Williams, D. A., Whelley, P. L., Greeley, R., Neukum, G. and the HRSC co-investigator team. Dust devil speeds, directions of motion and general characteristics observed by the Mars express high resolution stereo camera. Icarus, 2008, 197(1), 39–51.

  • Greeley, R. et al., Gusev crater, Mars: observations of three dust devil seasons. J. Geophys. Res., 2010, 115, E00F02.

  • Choi, D. S. and Dundas, C. M., Measurements of Martian dust devil winds with HiRISE. Geophys. Res. Letts., 2011, 38, L24206.

  • Newman, C. E., Lewis, S. R., Read, P. L. and Forget, F., Modeling the Martian dust cycle. 1: representations of dust transport processes. J. Geophys. Res., 2002, 107(E12), art. no. 5123.

  • Newman, C. E., Lewis, S. R., Read, P. L. and Forget, F., Modelling the Martian dust cycle. 2: multi-annual radiatively active dust transport simulations. J. Geophys. Res., 2002, 107(E12), art. no. 5124.

  • Whelley, P. L. and Greeley, R., The distribution of dust devil activity on Mars. J. Geophys. Res., 2008, 113, E07002.

  • Reiss, D., Spiga, A. and Erkeling, G., The horizontal motion of dust devils on Mars derived from CRISM and CTX/HiRISE observations. Icarus, 2014, 227, 8–20.

  • Thomas, P., Surface features of Phobos and Deimos. Icarus, 1979, 40(2), 223–243.

  • Thomas, P. and Veverka, J., Down slope movement of material on Deimos. Icarus, 1980, 42(2), 234–250.

  • Pabari, J. P. and Banerjee, D., Levitation of charged dust grains and its implications in lunar environment. Curr. Sci., 2016, 110(10), 25, 1984–1989.

  • Horanyi, M., Szalay, J. R., Kempf, S., Schmidt, J., Grun, E., Srama, R. and Sternovsky, Z., A permanent, asymmetric dust cloud around the Moon. Nature, 2015, 522, 324–326.

  • Farrell, W. M., Stubbs, T. J., Vondrak, R. R., Delory, G. T. and Halekas, J. S., Complex electric fields near the lunar terminator: the near-surface wake and accelerated dust. Geophys. Res. Letts., 2007, 34, L14201; doi:10.1029/2007GL029312.

  • Zakharov, A., Horanyi, M., Lee, P., Witasse, O. and Cipriani, F., Dust at the Martian moons and in the circummartian space. Planetary Space Sci., 2014, 102, 171–175.

  • Oberst, J., Zakharov, A. and Schulz, R., Why study Phobos and Deimos? an introduction to the special issue. Planet. Space Sci., 2014, 102, 1.

  • Krivov, A. V. and Hamilton, D. P., Martian dust belts: waiting for discovery. Icarus, 1997, 128, 335–353.

  • Andersson, L. et al., Dust observations at orbital altitudes surrounding Mars. Science, 2015, 350(6261), aad0398(1–3).

  • Igenbergs, E. et al., Mars dust counter. Earth Planets Space, 1998, 50, 241–245.

  • Lee, P. et al., Phobos and Deimos and Mars environment (PADME): A LADEE-derived mission to explore Mars’s moons and the Martian orbital environment. In 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 2014, #2288, 2014.

  • Pabari, J. P., Bhalodi, P. J. and Patel, D. K., Mars orbit dust experiment (MODEX) for future Marsorbiter: In 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 2016, #1419.

  • Sternovsky, Z., The Lunar Dust EXperiment (LDEX) for LADEE, In CIPS Seminar, 2009; http://www.mn.uio.no/fysikk/english/research/doctoral-degree/research-schools/workshop-arr/ZoltanSternovsky_The_Lunar_Dust_EXperiment_for_LADEE.pdf (accessed on 24 January 2015).

  • Kruger, H., Hamilton, D. P., Moissl, R. and Grun, E., Galileo in-situ dust measurements in Jupiter’s gossamer rings. Icarus, 2009, 203, 198–213.

  • Sasaki, S. et al., Observation of interplanetary and interstellar dust particles by Mars Dust Counter (MDC) on board NOZOMI. ASR, 2002, 29(8), 1145–1153.

  • Grun, E. et al., The Galileo dust detector. SSR, 1992, 60, 317–340.


Abstract Views: 291

PDF Views: 95




  • Detection of Dust around Mars and its Implications

Abstract Views: 291  |  PDF Views: 95

Authors

J. P. Pabari
Physical Research Laboratory, PLANEX, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad 380 009, India

Abstract


Recent observations of MAVEN find dust to be present at altitudes from ~150 to 1000 km from the Mars surface. It is expected that it could be interplanetary in nature, based on assumption of particle velocity. Existence of dust at orbital altitudes on Mars could be mainly due to two plausible sources, viz. interplanetary dust and Phobos/Deimos-originated dust. Dust devils prevailing near the surface can lift the dust to a few tens of kilometres and at present, no physical process can explain dust transport to high altitudes (>50 km) from the dust devils. Another possible source of dust around Mars could be interstellar in nature; however, its possibility is rare. Dust originating from Phobos/Deimos could be either due to secondary ejecta created by continuous bombardment of micrometeorites or due to grain levitation. Though dust levitation on the Moon is yet to be confirmed by in-situ measurements, it is expected that it should occur on the airless bodies. The velocity of secondary ejecta and that of levitated dust can exceed the escape velocity of Phobos/Deimos and cause the dust to escape into outer space. Such escaping particles can form dust ring/torus around Phobos/Deimos and therefore also around Mars. The dust ring/torus is yet to be studied and fully understood. Observations of dust, whether originating from Phobos/Demos or interplanetary dust particles, are necessary for finding its origin, abundance and distribution around Mars. This article discusses the existence of high-altitude (>100 km) dust around Mars, and techniques for the detection of these dust particles using an impact ionization detector in a future Mars orbiter mission.

Keywords


Dust Devils, Mars, Natural Satellites, Torus.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv113%2Fi11%2F2080-2084