Impact-Generated Dust Clouds Surrounding the Galilean Moons

Authors:
Harald~Krüger,
Alexander V. Krivov,
Miodrag Sremcevi’c,
Eberhard Grün

Comments: Icarus, in press, 46 pages, 16 figures, 5 tables

Tenuous dust clouds of Jupiter’s Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and
Callisto have been detected with the in-situ dust detector on board the Galileo
spacecraft. The majority of the dust particles have been sensed at altitudes
below five radii of these lunar-sized satellites. We identify the particles in
the dust clouds surrounding the moons by their impact direction, impact
velocity, and mass distribution. Average particle sizes are 0.5 to $
m 1 mu
m$, just above the detector threshold, indicating a size distribution with
decreasing numbers towards bigger particles. Our results imply that the
particles have been kicked up by hypervelocity impacts of micrometeoroids onto
the satellites’ surfaces. The measured radial dust density profiles are
consistent with predictions by dynamical modeling for satellite ejecta produced
by interplanetary impactors (Krivov et al., PSS, 2003, 51, 251–269), assuming
yield, mass and velocity distributions of the ejecta from laboratory
measurements. The dust clouds of the three outer Galilean moons have very
similar properties and are in good agreement with the model predictions for
solid ice-silicate surfaces. The dust density in the vicinity of Io, however,
is more than an order of magnitude lower than expected from theory. This may be
due to a softer, fluffier surface of Io (volcanic deposits) as compared to the
other moons. The log-log slope of the dust number density in the clouds vs.
distance from the satellite center ranges between –1.6 and –2.8. Appreciable
variations of number densities obtained from individual flybys with varying
geometry, especially at Callisto, might be indicative of leading-trailing
asymmetries of the clouds due to the motion of the moons with respect to the
field of impactors.

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