Abstract
Wyatt and Whipple (1950) identified a constant (W) in the relation between orbital semimajor axis (a) and eccentricity for interplanetary particles under the influence of Poynting-Robertson drag. Perturbations due to the planets were found to cause changes in W, including a nearly monotonie decrease for particles with semimajor axes less than 2 AU. Based on the calculated orbital evolution (Gustafson et al., 1987a) of some two hundred dust particles released from comet P/Encke and perturbed by the planets Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter as well as radiation pressure and drag and corpuscular drag, values were found for the changes in W as a function of a. Most frequently, particles showed a decrease in W, corresponding to an increase in eccentricity over that predicted from P-R drag. This effect should be accounted for in future dynamical calculations that include Poynting-Robertson drag.
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