Explanipedia

Detectability of Dust and Ion Tails of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS by Europa Clipper Open

Hsiang‐Wen Hsu, Jan Deca, S. Kempf, Corey J. Cochrane, Xianzhe Jia , et al. · 2025

The Europa Clipper spacecraft is located about 1 au downstream from the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS around its perihelion. Here we model the propagation of pickup ions and cometary dust originating from 3I/ATLAS to examine their detectabil…

Observational Characteristics of Electron Distributions in the Martian Induced Magnetotail Open

Chi Zhang, Chuanfei Dong, Hongyang Zhou, Jan Deca, Shaosui Xu , et al. · 2025

Mars's magnetotail represents a unique case within the solar system, embodying both intrinsic and induced magnetic fields. Yet, the electron dynamics within this region have remained largely unexplored. Utilizing nine years of electron and…

Charging effects on Rosetta dust measurements Open

M. Horányi, Jan Deca · 2024

Dust particles released from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko collect electrostatic charges. Their motion is influenced by the electric fields induced by the flow of the solar wind and by the charging of the Rosetta spacecraft itself. Dust …

Electrostatic Dust Analyzer for Dust Transport Measurements on the Lunar Surface Open

Xu Wang, M. Horányi, C. D. Fisher, L. Eberwein, Jan Deca , et al. · 2024

Lunar dust charging and transport is a more than five-decade-old problem. A high-fidelity and flight-qualified Electrostatic Dust Analyzer (EDA) has been developed to measure the charge, velocity, mass (size), and flux of electrostatically…

The Comet Interceptor Mission Open

G. H. Jones, C. Snodgrass, C. Tubiana, M. Küppers, Hideyo Kawakita , et al. · 2024

The Value of the Moon for Heliophysics Open

J. S. Halekas, M. Sarantos, Leonardo Regoli, Yuki Harada, Yihua Zheng , et al. · 2023

International audience

Solar-wind electron precipitation on weakly magnetized bodies: The planet Mercury Open

Federico Lavorenti, Pierre Henri, F. Califano, Jan Deca, Simon Lindsay , et al. · 2023

Rocky objects in the Solar System (such as planets, asteroids, moons, and comets) undergo a complex interaction with the flow of magnetized, supersonic plasma emitted from the Sun called solar wind. We address the interaction of such a flo…

Fully-kinetic global simulations of Mercury's magnetosphere in support to BepiColombo Open

Federico Lavorenti, Pietro Dazzi, Pierre Henri, Jan Deca, F. Califano , et al. · 2023

Mercury is the only telluric planet of the solar system, apart from Earth, possessing an intrinsic magnetic field.This magnetic field shapes (and it is shaped by) the plasma dynamics around the planet, defining the Herman magnetosphere, an…

Solar wind interaction with a comet: evolution, variability, and implication Open

Charlotte Götz, Jan Deca, K. E. Mandt, M. Volwerk · 2022

Once a cometary plasma cloud has been created through ionisation of the cometary neutrals, it presents an obstacle to the solar wind and the magnetic field within it. The acceleration and incorporation of the cometary plasma by the solar w…

Cold electrons at a weakly outgassing comet  Open

Peter Stephenson, M. Galand, Jan Deca, Pierre Henri · 2022

The Rosetta spacecraft rendezvoused with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August 2014 and escorted it for two years until September 2016. The plasma surrounding the comet was probed by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC), compri…

Electron dynamics in Mercury’s magnetosphere using a global fully-kinetic model Open

Federico Lavorenti, Pierre Henri, F. Califano, Jan Deca, Sae Aizawa , et al. · 2022

Mercury is the only telluric planet of the solar system, other than Earth, with an intrinsic magnetic field. Thus, the Hermean surface is shielded from the impinging sol…

The source of electrons at a weakly outgassing comet Open

Peter Stephenson, K. Altwegg, Arnaud Beth, Jim Burch, C. Carr , et al. · 2022

The Rosetta spacecraft escorted comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for two years along its orbit, from Aug 2014 to Sep 2016, observing the evolution of the comet from a close perspective. The Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) monitored…

Solar-wind electron precipitation on weakly magnetized bodies: the\n planet Mercury Open

Federico Lavorenti, Pierre Hornych, F. Califano, Jan Deca, Simon Lindsay , et al. · 2022

Mercury is the archetype of a weakly magnetized, airless, telluric body\nimmersed in the solar wind. Due to the lack of any substantial atmosphere, the\nsolar wind directly precipitates on Mercury's surface. Using a 3D fully-kinetic\nself-…

Electron dynamics in small magnetospheres Open

Federico Lavorenti, Pierre Henri, F. Califano, Jan Deca, Sae Aizawa , et al. · 2022

Context. The planet Mercury possesses a small but highly dynamic magnetosphere in which the role and dynamics of electrons are still largely unknown. Aims. We aim to model the global dynamics of solar-wind electrons impinging on Mercury’s …

Electron dynamics in small magnetospheres: insights from global fully-kinetic plasma simulations of planet Mercury Open

Federico Lavorenti, Pierre Hornych, F. Califano, Jan Deca, Sae Aizawa , et al. · 2022

The planet Mercury possesses a small but highly dynamic magnetosphere in which the role and dynamics of electrons are still largely unknown. We aim at modeling the global dynamics of solar wind electrons impinging on Mercury's magnetospher…

Three-dimensional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations of non-dipolar minimagnetospheres and comparison to the experiment. Open

Andrey Divin, И. Ф. Шайхисламов, Igor Paramonik, М. S. Rumenskikh, Daniil Korovinskiy , et al. · 2022

Magnetospheres are formed when plasma flow interacts with an external source of the magnetic field. Objects (with a size comparable to or less than the ion inertial length or ion gyroradius) formed by relatively weak magnetic fiel…

A Fully Kinetic Perspective on Weakly Active Comets: Symmetric versus Asymmetric Outgassing Open

Jan Deca, Peter Stephenson, Andrey Divin, Pierre Henri, M. Galand · 2022

For more than two years, ESA’s Rosetta mission measured the complex and ever-evolving plasma environment surrounding comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In this work, we explore the structure and dynamics of the near-comet …

Full-kinetic global simulations of the plasma environment at Mercury: a model from planetary to electrons scales to support BepiColombo Open

Federico Lavorenti, Pierre Henri, F. Califano, Jan Deca, Sae Aizawa , et al. · 2022

Mercury is the only telluric planet of the solar system, other than Earth, with an intrinsic magnetic field. Thus, the Hermean surface is shielded from the impinging solar wind via the presence of an “Earth-like&#822…

A collisional test-particle model of electrons at a comet Open

Peter Stephenson, M. Galand, Jan Deca, Pierre Henri, Gianluca Carnielli · 2022

We have developed the first 3D collisional model of electrons at a comet, which we use to examine the impact of electron-neutral collisions in the weakly outgassing regime. The test-particle Monte Carlo model uses electric and magnetic fie…

Laboratory Simulation of Solar Wind Interaction With Lunar Magnetic Anomalies Open

Li Hsia Yeo, Jia Han, Xu Wang, Greg Werner, Jan Deca , et al. · 2022

Magnetic anomalies on the surface of the Moon interact with the solar wind plasma flow, resulting in both magnetic and electrostatic deflection/reflection of charged particles. Consequently, surface charging in these regions differs from r…

The Plasma Environment Surrounding the Reiner Gamma Magnetic Anomaly Open

Jan Deca, A. R. Poppe, Andrey Divin, Bertrand Lembège · 2021

Reiner Gamma is a prime target for low‐orbiting spacecraft or even surface‐landed missions in the near future. The region hosts a prominent lunar swirl that is co‐located with a strong and well‐structured magnetic anomaly. We simulate and …

Dynamics of electrostatically lofted dust on airless planetary bodies Open

Li Hsia Yeo, Xu Wang, Jan Deca, Hsiang‐Wen Hsu, M. Horányi · 2021

Author Correction: Far-ultraviolet aurora identified at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Open

M. Galand, P. D. Feldman, D. Bockelée–Morvan, N. Biver, Yu‐Chi Cheng , et al. · 2021

The Plethora of Science Afforded by a Lunar Swirl Open

G. Y. Kramer, Jan Deca, Shashwat Shukla, T. Kohout, Xu Wang , et al. · 2021

Whitepaper #166 submitted to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032. Topics: surface/geological evolution; Mercury and/or the Moon; other science themes: Physics, Heliophysics, Magnetohydrodynamics, Volcanology, IS…

NanoSWARM: NanoSatellites for Space Weathering, Surface Water, Solar Wind, and Remanent Magnetism Open

I. Garrick‐Bethell, D. A. Paige, Marcia Burton, Justin Boland, J. N. H. Abrahams , et al. · 2021

The NanoSWARM mission concept is a detailed investigation of particles and magnetic fields to help characterize the surfaces of airless planetary bodies, their volatile element distributions, and their geophysical histories.NanoSWARM inves…

Numerical and laboratory studies of magnetic enhancements produced by solar wind interaction with Lunar crustal magnetic fields Open

Andrey Divin, И. Ф. Шайхисламов, М. S. Rumenskikh, Ivan Zaitsev, V. V. Semenov , et al. · 2021

In this study, we use a combination of 3D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations and a laboratory experiment to investigate the dynamics of solar wind - Moon interaction. It is known that the Moon has no global magnetic field, but the…

On ion temperature dependence of symmetric magnetic reconnection Open

Ivan Zaitsev, Andrey Divin, Vladimir Semenov, Daniil Korovinskiy, Jan Deca , et al. · 2021

Various simulations of collisionless magnetic reconnection reveal that the process is typically fast, with the reconnection rate being of the order of 0.1. Systematic numerical and observational studies of upstream parameters depe…

Electron cooling at a weakly outgassing comet Open

Peter Stephenson, M. Galand, Jan Deca, Pierre Henri, Gianluca Carnielli · 2021

The Rosetta spacecraft arrived at comet 67P in August 2014 and then escorted it for 2 years along its orbit. Throughout this escort phase, two plasma instruments (Mutual Impedance Probe, MIP; and Langmuir Probe, LAP) measured a po…

Cold ion energization at separatrices during magnetic reconnection Open

Ivan Zaitsev, Andrey Divin, V. S. Semenov, I. V. Kubyshkin, Daniil Korovinskiy , et al. · 2021

Separatrices of magnetic reconnection host intense perpendicular Hall electric fields. The fields are produced by the decoupling of the ion and electron components and are associated with the in-plane electrostatic potential drop between t…

Cross-comparison of global simulation models applied to Mercury’s dayside magnetosphere Open

Sae Aizawa, Léa Griton, S. Fatemi, Willi Exner, Jan Deca , et al. · 2021

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