Electrostatic Dust Ejection From Asteroid (3200) Phaethon With the Aid of Mobile Alkali Ions at Perihelion

Abstract

The asteroid (3200) Phaethon is known to be the parent body of the Geminids, although meteor showers are commonly associated with the activity of periodic comets. What is most peculiar to the asteroid is its comet-like activity in the ejection of micrometer-sized dust particles at every perihelion passage, while the activity of the asteroid has never been identified outside the near-perihelion zone at $0.14\mathrm{au}$ from the Sun. From the theoretical point of view, we argue that the activity of the asteroid is well explained by the electrostatic lofting of micrometer-sized dust particles with the aid of mobile alkali ions at high temperatures. The mass-loss rates of micrometer-sized particles from the asteroid in our model is entirely consistent with the values inferred from visible observations of Phaethon's dust tail. For millimeter-sized particles, we predict three orders of magnitudes higher mass-loss rates, which could also account for the total mass of the Geminid meteoroid stream by the electrostatic lofting mechanism.

arXiv comment7 pages. 2 figures, to appear in Icarus Letters

References in corpus (16)

• The Active Asteroids
• The Dust Tail of Asteroid (3200) Phaethon
• Cohesion of Amorphous Silica Spheres: Toward a Better Understanding of the Coagulation Growth of Silicate Dust Aggregates
• Recurrent Perihelion Activity in (3200) Phaethon
• (3200) Phaethon: Bulk density from Yarkovsky drift detection
• Resurrection of (3200) Phaethon in 2016
• Observations of 1999 YC and the Breakup of the Geminid Stream Parent
• Dynamical Evolution and Thermal History of Asteroids (3200) Phaethon and (155140) 2005 UD
• Volatility of Sodium in Carbonaceous Chondrites at Temperatures Consistent with Low-Perihelia Asteroids
• The Geminid meteoroid stream as a potential meteorite dropper: a case study
• Parker Solar Probe Observations of a Dust Trail in the Orbit of (3200) Phaethon
• In Search of Recent Disruption of (3200) Phaethon: Model Implication and Hubble Space Telescope Search
• Hubble Space Telescope Observations of 3200 Phaethon At Closest Approach
• The Morphological, Elastic, and Electric Properties of Dust Aggregates in Comets: A Close Look at COSIMA/Rosetta's Data on Dust in Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
• Photometric study for near-Earth asteroid (155140) 2005 UD
• Dust release from cold ring particles as a mechanism of spoke formation in Saturn's rings

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Continued PSP/WISPR Observations of a Phaethon-related Dust Trail
• Evidence of surface heterogeneity on active asteroid (3200) Phaethon
• Formation, Structure, and Detectability of the Geminids Meteoroid Stream
• Electrostatic Repulsion of Dust from Planetary Surfaces
• WISE/NEOWISE Multi-Epoch Imaging of the Potentially Geminid-related Asteroids: (3200) Phaethon, 2005 UD and 1999 YC
• The Dissolution of Planetesimals in Electrostatic Fields
• The possible origin of three Apollo asteroids 3200 Phaethon, 2005UD, and 1999YC