Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 – 23 September 2022
Europlanet Science Congress 2022
Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain
18 September – 23 September 2022
EPSC Abstracts
Vol. 16, EPSC2022-785, 2022, updated on 10 Jan 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-785
Europlanet Science Congress 2022
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Investigating the outer regions of the heliosphere with measurements and simulations of interstellar dust

Lennart Robin Baalmann1, Silvan Hunziker1, Peter Strub2,3, David Malaspina4, Urs Schroffenegger, Harald Krüger2, Mark Hervig5, Allison N. Jaynes6, William Kurth6, Lynn B. Wilson III7, and Veerle J. Sterken1
Lennart Robin Baalmann et al.
  • 1ETH Zürich, Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Zürich, Switzerland
  • 2Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen, Germany
  • 3Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme, Stuttgart, Germany
  • 4University of Colorado, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, USA
  • 5GATS, Inc., Driggs, USA
  • 6University of Iowa, Physics and Astronomy, Iowa City, USA
  • 7NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA

Interstellar dust has been and will be measured by many spacecraft, both directly (e.g. by Cassini, Ulysses, DESTINY+, IMAP) and indirectly (e.g. by Voyager, Wind). The flux of interstellar dust at these spacecraft can be enhanced, in particular for small dust grains (<0.3µm), due to the so-called focusing phase of the solar cycle (for dust), in the early 2030s.

Through their surface charges, these small particles are coupled to the solar-cycle-dependent magnetic fields inside and to interstellar fields outside of the heliosphere. By comparing the measurements to simulations of interstellar dust, inferences about the outer regions of the heliosphere and its boundary can be made. The quality of these inferences highly depends on the availability of detailed measurements of interstellar dust, highlighting the necessity of a space-based dust detector operating during the upcoming focusing phase, such as the proposed DOLPHIN mission.

In this talk we give an overview of measurements and simulations of the measurements of various missions so far, and their link to interstellar dust simulations. 

How to cite: Baalmann, L. R., Hunziker, S., Strub, P., Malaspina, D., Schroffenegger, U., Krüger, H., Hervig, M., Jaynes, A. N., Kurth, W., Wilson III, L. B., and Sterken, V. J.: Investigating the outer regions of the heliosphere with measurements and simulations of interstellar dust, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 Sep 2022, EPSC2022-785, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-785, 2022.

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