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Published October 2010 | public
Journal Article

Structure of the Earth's circumsolar dust ring

Abstract

Interplanetary dust particles from comets and asteroids pervade the Solar System and become temporarily trapped into orbital resonances with Earth, leading to a circumsolar dust ring. Using the unique vantage point of the Spitzer Space Telescope from its Earth-trailing solar orbit, we have measured for the first time the azimuthal structure of the Earth's resonant dust ring. There is a relative paucity of particles within 0.1 AU of the Earth, followed by an enhancement in a cloud that is centered 0.2 AU behind Earth with a width of 0.08 AU along the Earth's orbit. The North ecliptic pole is ~3% brighter at 8 μm wavelength when viewed from inside the enhancement. The presence of azimuthal asymmetries in debris disks around other stars is considered strong evidence for planets. By measuring the properties of the Earth's resonant ring, we can provide "ground truth" to models for interactions of planets and debris disks, possibly leading to improved predictions for detectability of life-bearing planets. The low amplitude of the azimuthal asymmetry in the Earth's circumsolar ring suggests significant contributions to the zodiacal light from particles that are large (>30 μm) or have large orbital eccentricity that makes capture into mean motion resonances inefficient.

Additional Information

© 2010 Elsevier Inc. Received 1 April 2010; revised 18 June 2010; accepted 20 June 2010. Available online 3 July 2010. This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. I thank M.G. Hauser, C.A. Beichman, and M.W. Werner for inspiration and motivation on this project. This work would not have been possible without the diligence of the IRAC instrument team, led by Principal Investigator G.G. Fazio, and the instrument support team at the Spitzer Science Center.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023