Dust in the Jupiter system outside the rings

TL;DR

This paper reviews the various dust populations in the Jupiter system outside the rings, discussing their sources, dynamics, and implications for spacecraft safety and planetary science.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of dust environments around Jupiter, integrating observations and models to enhance understanding of dust sources and behaviors.

Findings

Identification of five main dust populations outside Jupiter's rings.

Analysis of dust dynamics influenced by gravity, magnetic fields, and plasma.

Assessment of dust hazard for spacecraft and material exchange processes.

Abstract

Jupiter is one of the major targets for planetary exploration, and dust in the Jovian system is of great interest to researchers in the field of planetary science. In this paper, we review the five dust populations outside the ring system: grains in the region of the Galilean moons, potential dust from plumes on Europa, Jovian stream particles, particles in the outer region of the Jovian system ejected from the irregular satellites, and dust in the region of the Trojan asteroids. The physical environment for the dust dynamics is described, including the gravity, the magnetic field and the plasma environment. For each population, the dust sources are described, and the relevant perturbation forces are discussed. Observations and results from modeling are reviewed, and the distributions of the individual dust populations are shown. The understanding of the Jovian dust environment allows to assess the dust hazard to spacecraft, and to characterize the material exchange between the Jovian moons, their surface properties and distribution of non-icy constituents.