Dust Bands in the Asteroid Belt
Abstract
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) discovered three bands of dust: one above, below, and approximately in the plane of the ecliptic. These bands are located in the asteroid belt and are believed to arise from collisional activity. Debris from an asteroid collision, over time, fills a torus having peaks in particle number density near its inner and outer corners, corresponding to the locus of perihelia and aphelia, respectively. As a consequence of this geometry, such a swarm should produce two pairs of bands that straddle the ecliptic - a perihelion band pair and an aphelion band pair (which generally overlap along the line of sight from earth). Indeed, processing of the IRAS data now resolves the band structure into at least three such band pairs, with indications of several more pairs distributed over a large range of ecliptic latitudes. Some of these bands appear to be associated with major Hirayama asteroid families, while others are not. Possible origins of the observed dust bands include: (1) the gradual comminution of the asteroid belts as a whole, in which the local dust population is maximum where the concentration of asteroids is greatest (e.g. families); (2) one or a few large random asteroid collisions enhancing the local population of small debris, which in turn is comminuted into dust; and (3) the disintegration of one or more large comets. Dust bands are not necessarily constant features of the solar system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 08, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA213549
Entities
People
- John A. Burns
- M. Sykes
- P. Nicholson
- R. Greenberg
- S. Dermott