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B. Å. S. Gustafson (Department of Astronomy, University of Florida)
I will critically review the main results on dust in interplanetary space and its diversity based on deep space probing. The dust impact rate on the Ulysses and Galileo dust detectors can be discerned as depending on the changing viewing geometry of the detector as the spacecraft spins and moves along its orbit. This reveals the existence of dynamically separate populations, evidence for these will be presented and interpretations in terms of the progenitors will be discussed. The decreasing flux with increasing size or mass in combination with typical detector areas of the order of one square meter means that the smallest grains in the micron and submicron range are sampled while statistically very little or no information is obtained on larger grains. The next step will be the study of larger grains and their retrieval for analysis in the laboratory. I will address plans for a large cosmic dust collector in Earth orbit to bring back grains of tens of microns to Earth for laboratory studies.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: gustaf@astro.ufl.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.