The origin and dynamics of the interplanetary dust cloud

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Abstract
Obtaining a model of the zodiacal cloud to predict the flux in a given waveband, in a given direction, at a given time of the year, to one per cent of the peak brightness, or better, will require a detailed understanding of the dynamics of the particles that originate from each of the various sources. Each component of the cloud (asteroidal, cometary and interstellar) gives rise to characteristic features and by resolving the cloud into its various components and determining the amplitudes of the signals associated with each, we are able to determine the fractional composition of the cloud. We can expect to have a good understanding of the dynamics of the asteroidal particles that give rise to the solar system dust bands and get trapped in the Earth’s circumsolar resonant ring. Our interpretations of the dust band observations and of the cloud’s trailing/leading asymmetry indicate that about one third of the particles in the cloud are asteroidal, implying that about two thirds of the particles originate from comets. Some progress has been made with understanding the dynamics of cometary particles, but this remains a challenging problem. In this paper, to illustrate the quality of the DIRBE data and to show how the observed structure of the cloud is amenable to a dynamical interpretation, we analyze the asymmetry of the cloud observed in the DIRBE 12 μm waveband.

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