Dusty plasma near the surface of phobos

Abstract

It has been shown that a dusty plasma is formed in the surface layer over the illuminated part of Mars’ satellite Phobos owing to photoelectric and electrostatic processes. The distribution functions of photoelectrons near its surface, altitude dependences of the density of dust particles, and their charges and sizes, as well as electric fields, have been determined within a physicomathematical model for the self-consistent description of densities of photoelectrons and dust particles over the surface of the illuminated part of Phobos. In view of a weak gravitational field, dust particles rising over the surface of Phobos are larger than those over the surface of the Moon. In this case, the role of adhesion, which is a significant process preventing the separation of dust particles from the lunar surface, is much smaller on Phobos.