Dusty plasmas at Martian satellites

Abstract

Dusty plasmas are shown to be formed in a surface layer over the illuminated part of Martian satellites Phobos and Deimos owing to photoelectric and electrostatic processes. The distribution functions of photoelectrons near surfaces of the satellites, altitude dependences of the density of dust particles, and their charges and sizes, as well as electric fields, have been determined within a physical-mathematical model for the self-consistent description of densities of photoelectrons and dust particles over the surface of the illuminated parts of Phobos and Deimos. In view of a weak gravitational field, dust particles rising over the surfaces of Phobos and Deimos are larger than those over the surface of the Moon. In this case, the role of adhesion, which is a significant process preventing the separation of dust particles from the lunar surface, is much smaller on Phobos and Deimos.