Measurement of Zodiacal Dust Bands with WIZARD

Abstract

Interplanetary dust particles are observable as zodiacal light, which is the sunlight scattered by the interplanetary dust particles. The origins of interplanetary dust particles are still in question because they are eroded by Poynting-Robertson photon drag and mutual collisions among dust particles. The small-scale structures in the zodiacal light provided a clue to specify their origins. Asteroidal debris were detected as band-like structures (dust bands), and the cometary large particles were detected as narrow trails (dust trails). However, little is known about their detailed origins and mineralogical compositions because of the lack of observational data particularly in the optical wavelength.

In this thesis, we show a high resolution optical zodiacal light map based on the CCD observations at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. We used data set taken on November 12, 2004. After the data reduction, such as flat fielding and subtraction of airglow emissions, we succeeded in the construction of the zodiacal light map with the spatial resolution of 3' in the solar elongation of 45 ~ 180 degree. This is the highest resolution map so far. In this map, we found that the brightness asymmetry can be explained qualitatively by a model constructed with infrared observations. In addition, we confirmed the dust bands structures near the ecliptic plane with this map. We expect that the wide coverage of the solar elongation unveils dynamical evolution of asteroidal dust band particles. In addition, the albedo of the particles can be deduced together with the infrared observations.