Dynamics of charged dust in the orbit of Venus

TL;DR

This paper investigates how non-gravitational forces like radiation pressure, solar wind, and magnetic fields affect the stability and location of charged dust particles in Venus's orbit, revealing asymmetries and destabilization of libration points.

Contribution

It provides a combined analytical and numerical analysis of the effects of non-gravitational forces on co-orbital dust dynamics near Venus, including the destabilization of Lagrangian points.

Findings

Asymmetry between L4 and L5 libration centers due to non-gravitational effects.

Triangular Lagrangian points become unstable under radiation pressure, Poynting-Robertson effect, and solar wind.

Lorentz force further destabilizes small charged dust particles' orbits.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of co-orbital dust in the inner solar system, i.e. the role of the solar radiation pressure, Poynting-Robertson effect, solar wind, and the interplanetary magnetic field on the location, width and stability of resonant motion of charged, and micron sized dust grains situated in the 1:1 mean motion resonance with planet Venus. We find deviations and asymmetry between $L_4$ and $L_5$ in locations of libration centers and libration width under the influence of non-gravitational effects via both analytical and numerical methods. The triangular Lagrangian points become unstable once we take into consideration solar radiation pressure, the Poynting-Robertson effect and solar wind drag. The Lorentz force could further destabilize the orbits, especially for small dust particles. We also make a comparison between the circular, elliptic restricted three-body model and a more complete model including all planets.