The electric charging of interstellar dust in the solar system and consequences for its dynamics

摘要

The motion of the solar system relative to the local interstellar medium causes a flux of neutral gas and dust into the solar system. When interstellar dust particles penetrate into the solar system, the mass distribution of the grains is modified because smaller dust grains, which have higher charge-to-mass ratios, are deflected by the Lorentz force in the solar magnetic field. In order to investigate the condi- tions of interstellar dust particles streaming into the heliosphere, the equilibrium surface potentials of interstellar dust grains are calculated assuming that the grains are homogeneous spheres off different materials.