Micrometeoroid impact crater statistics at the boundary of Earth's gravitational sphere of influence

Abstract

We surveyed craters on a space-exposed surface from the Genesis solar wind sample return mission to find new constraints on the population of micrometeoroids at the edge of the Earth's gravitational sphere of influence. The target was made of 6061-T6 aluminum, identical to the composition of the space-facing end of the Long Duration Exposure Facility satellite, which recorded micrometeoroid impacts in low Earth orbit. We use data from both locations to compare crater frequency as a function of size, with and without gravitational focussing by the Earth. We find that the cratering flux near the Earth–Sun L1 libration point is indistinguishable, within the ∼ 40 % uncertainty of this study, from that in low Earth orbit. The small degree of gravitational focussing between the two locations indicates that particles with geocentric free-space velocities less than a few kilometers per second comprise no more than a few percent of the interplanetary dust complex.