Interplanetary dust dynamics: I. Long-term gravitational effects of the inner planets on zodiacal dust

Abstract

Whereas the inner planets' perturbations on meteoroids' and larger interplanetary bodies' orbits have been studied extensively, they are usually neglected in studies of the dynamics of smaller particles producing the zodiacal light through scattering of sunlight. Forces acting on these dust particles are fairly well known and include radiation forces and interaction with the solar wind. This article is the first in a series aimed at improving our knowledge of the dynamical evolution of dust in interplanetary space by studying the combined effects of these perturbations including gravitational perturbations by the planets Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. The necessity of including effects of the inner planets in dust dynamics investigations is established. Sample trajectories are presented to illustrate commonly occurring phenomenae, such as nonmonotonic changes in semimajor axis, eccentricity, inclination, and in the line of nodes. These perturbations are shown to be due to the inner planets as opposted to Jupiter or nongravitational forces.