Dust escape mechanism from Io

Abstract

The analysis done of the data obtained by Ulysses and Galileo spacecrafts throughout the Jovian system has confirmed that dust that escapes from Jupiter in collimated streams proceeds from volcanic ejections produced in Io. The volcanoes eject a mixture of dust and gases of sulfur and oxygen. Although the speeds of the ejections are just near a half of the escape velocity, the volcanic material escapes. It has been inferred that electromagnetic forces might play an important role in order to understand the physical mechanism that allows some dust particles (grains) to escape from Io. Dust escape from Io must accomplish at least three different conditions: first of all, grains must have a micrometer size, grains must acquire a minimum electrostatic charge and third, they must get a high enough altitude to be in contact with the surrounding Jovian plasma and being dragged. In this investigation we obtain three results: the maximum and minimum ejection velocities of 15 Ionian known plumes, the maximum escape radii for grains emitted in those plumes and the maximum time of permanence for such dust particles before they escape from the Jovian environment considering a single particle model.