Trapping and dynamical evolution of interplanetary dust particles in Earth’s quasi-satellite resonance

Abstract

We used numerical simulations to model the orbital evolution of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) evolving inward past Earth’s orbit under the influence of radiation pressure, Poynting–Robertson light drag (PR drag), solar wind drag, and gravitational perturbations from the planets. A series of β values (where β is the ratio of the force from radiation pressure to that of central gravity) were used ranging from 0.0025 up to 0.02. Assuming a composition consistent with astronomical silicate and a particle density of 2.5gcm−3 these β values correspond to dust particle diameters ranging from 200μm down to 25μm. As the dust particle orbits decay past 1AU between 4% (for β=0.02, or 25μm) and 40% (for β=0.0025, or 200μm) of the population became trapped in 1:1 co-orbital resonance with Earth. In addition to traditional horseshoe type co-orbitals, we found about a quarter of the co-orbital IDPs became trapped as so-called quasi-satellites. Quasi-satellite IDPs always remain relatively near to Earth (within 0.1–0.3AU, or 10–30Hill radii, RH) and undergo two close-encounters with Earth each year. While resonant perturbations from Earth halt the decay in semi-major axis of quasi-satellite IDPs their orbital eccentricities continue to decrease under the influence of PR drag and solar wind drag, forcing the IDPs onto more Earth-like orbits. This has dramatic consequences for the relative velocity and distance of closest approach between Earth and the quasi-satellite IDPs. After 104–105years in the quasi-satellite resonance dust particles are typically less than 10RH from Earth and consistently coming within about 3RH. In the late stages of evolution, as the dust particles are escaping the 1:1 resonance, quasi-satellite IDPs can have deep close-encounters with Earth significantly below RH. Removing the effects of Earth’s gravitational acceleration reveals that encounter velocities (i.e., velocities “at infinity”) between quasi-satellite IDPs and Earth during these close-encounters are just a few hundred meters per second or slower, well below the average values of 2–4kms−1 for non-resonant Earth-crossing IDPs with similar initial orbits. These low encounter velocities lead to a factor of 10–100 increase in Earth’s gravitationally enhanced impact cross-section (σgrav) for quasi-satellite IDPs compared to similar non-resonant IDPs. The enhancement in σgrav between quasi-satellite IDPs and cometary Earth-crossing IDPs is even more pronounced, favoring accretion of quasi-satellite dust particles by a factor of 100–3000 over the cometary IDPs. This suggests that quasi-satellite dust particles may dominate the flux of large (25–200μm) IDPs entering Earth’s atmosphere. Furthermore, because quasi-satellite trapping is known to be directly correlated with the host planet’s orbital eccentricity the accretion of quasi-satellite dust likely ebbs and flows on 105year time scales synchronized with Earth’s orbital evolution.