Dust measurements in the Jovian magnetosphere

Abstract

Dust measurements have been obtained with the dust detector onboard the Galileo spacecraft inside a distance of about 60RJ from Jupiter (Jupiter radius, RJ = 71,492km) during two periods of about 8 days around Galileo's closest approaches to Ganymede on 27 June and on 6 Sept 1996. The impact rate of submicrometer-sized particles fluctuated by a factor of several hundred with a period of about 10 hours, implying that their trajectories are strongly affected by the interaction with the Jovian magnetic field. Concentrations of small dust impacts were detected at the tunes of Ganymede closest approaches that could be secondary ejecta particles generated upon impact of other particles onto Ganymede's surface. Micrometer-sized dust particles, which could be on bound orbits about Jupiter, are concentrated in the inner Jovian system inside about 20RJ from Jupiter. Copyright 1997 by the American Geophysical Union.