Interplanetary dust influx to the Pluto–Charon system

Abstract

The influx of interplanetary dust grains (IDPs) to the Pluto–Charon system is expected to drive several physical processes, including the formation of tenuous dusty rings and/or exospheres, the deposition of neutral material in Pluto’s atmosphere through ablation, the annealing of surface ices, and the exchange of ejecta between Pluto and its satellites. The characteristics of these physical mechanisms are dependent on the total incoming mass, velocity, variability, and composition of interplanetary dust grains; however, our knowledge of the IDP environment in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt has, until recently, remained rather limited. Newly-reported measurements by the New Horizons Student Dust Counter combined with previous Pioneer 10 meteoroid measurements and a dynamical IDP tracing model have improved the characterization of the IDP environment in the outer Solar System, including at Pluto–Charon. Here we report on this modeling and data comparison effort, including a discussion of the IDP influx to Pluto and its moons, and the implications thereof.