Experimentelle und Analytische Planetologie
Exploring the Boundaries of our Solar System
One of the future challenges of space research is exploring the extreme environments of the solar system,
namely the very close vicinity of the sun and the edge of the solar system where the interstellar medium
conditions can be studied in-situ. Both, the European Space Agency ESA and the US National Aeronautics and
Space Administration NASA have called expert panels to study the scientific and technological conditions for
future space missions to explore the very close vicinity of the sun. Also space missions toward the edge of the
solar system are discussed. We have carried out extensive studies of the dust and plasma environments in
these regions in order to suggest scientific measurement requirements for future projects to explore these
boundaries of the solar system.
As a result of the line-of-sight geometry astronomical brightness observations do not allow to study the
dust cloud in the very close vicinity of the sun so that in-situ measurements from spacecraft provide a unique
opportunity. The interest in the near solar dust cloud is twofold: for one it is the central region of the meteoritic
complex of our planetary system where meteoritic material is destroyed by sublimation and feeds ions in the
solar wind plasma, and secondly dust-plasma interactions occur that can not be simulated under laboratory
conditions.
Measurements
at the boundaries of the solar system will allow directly studying the dust component of the interstellar medium
and herewith the physics of dust destruction and dust formation processes in interstellar space.
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