Synergies between interstellar dust and heliospheric science with an interstellar probe

Abstract

We discuss the synergies between heliospheric and dust science, the open science questions, the technological endeavors and programmatic aspects that are important to maintain or develop in the decade to come. In particular, we illustrate how we can use interstellar dust in the solar system as a tracer for the (dynamic) heliosphere properties, and emphasize the fairly unexplored, but potentially important science question of the role of cosmic dust in heliospheric and astrospheric physics. We show that an Interstellar Probe mission with a dedicated dust suite would bring unprecedented advances to interstellar dust research, and can also contribute – through measuring dust – to heliospheric science. This can, in particular, be done well if we work in synergy with other missions inside the solar system, thereby using multiple vantage points in space to measure the dust as it ‘rolls’ into the heliosphere. Such synergies between missions inside the solar system and far out are crucial for disentangling the spatially and temporally varying dust flow. Finally, we highlight the relevant instrumentation and its suitability for contributing to finding answers to the research questions.

The DESTINY + Dust Analyser — a dust telescope for analysing cosmic dust dynamics and composition

“…A detailed analysis of the detection conditions for interplanetary and interstellar dust with DDA was given in [41,42] and a recent review about interstellar dust in the solar system can be found in [43]. Science questions for interstellar dust and related to the dust-heliosphere interaction can be found in [44].…”