Dust spectrometry in the Jovian System
Abstract
The Galileo spacecraft characterised the dust environment in the jovian system. The discoveries included an extended dusty ring system, the nano-metre sized stream particles originating from the moon Io, and the dust exospheres around the Galilean satellites Ganymed, Europa and Callisto [2]. The study of the nanodust-magnetosphere interaction and the compositional analysis of dust particles ejected by the surfaces of Ganymed or Europa offer unique future opportunities. New dust instrumentation is a factor of 10 more sensitive then the former Galileo detector and adds compositional analysis for moon surface studies complementary to neutral gas or ion particle investigations. A dust spectrometer performs complementary measurements with respect to neutral gas or ion investigations and is highly sensitive for organic, salty water ice and mineral particles.