Origin of Interplanetary Dust through Optical Properties of Zodiacal Light

Abstract

This study investigates the origin of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) through the optical properties, albedo and spectral gradient, of zodiacal light. The optical properties were compared with those of potential parent bodies in the solar system, which include D-type (as analogs of cometary nuclei), C-type, S-type, X-type, and B-type asteroids. We applied Bayesian inference to the mixture model composed of the distribution of these sources, and found that >90% of the IDPs originate from comets (or their spectral analogs, D-type asteroids). Although some classes of asteroids (C-type, X-type, and B-type) may make a moderate contribution, ordinary chondrite-like particles from S-type asteroids occupy a negligible fraction of the interplanetary dust cloud complex. The overall optical properties of the zodiacal light were similar to those of chondritic porous IDPs, supporting the dominance of cometary particles in the zodiacal cloud.