Interplanetary dust particle (IDP), also

called micrometeoroid, micrometeorite, or cosmic dust

particle, a small grain, generally less than a few hundred
micrometres in size and composed of silicate minerals and glassy
nodules but sometimes including sulfides, metals, other minerals,
and carbonaceous material, in orbit around the Sun. The existence
of interplanetary dust particles was first deduced from observations
of zodiacal light, a glowing band visible in the night sky
that comprises sunlight scattered by the dust. Spacecraft have
detected these particles as far out in space nearly as the orbit
of Uranus, which indicates that the entire solar system is immersed
in a disk of dust, centred on the ecliptic plane.

Every object in the solar system can produce dust by outgassing,

cratering, volcanism, or other processes. Most interplanetary dust is
believed to come from the surface erosion and collisions
of asteroids and from comets, which give off gas and dust when they
travel near the Sun.

The orbits of interplanetary dust particles are easily altered by

interaction with the light and charged particles (solar wind) that
emanate from the Sun. The smallest particles, less than 0.5
micrometre (μm; 0.00002 inch) in size, are blown out of the solar
system. Drag effects from sunlight and the solar wind cause larger
particles to spiral toward the Sun, some on paths that intercept
planets or their moons.

Considered in the context of their collisions with other objects in

space, interplanetary dust particles are frequently called
micrometeoroids. Because of their high speed (in the tens of
kilometres per second), micrometeoroids as small as a few hundred
micrometres in size pose a significant collision hazard
to spacecraft and their payloads. An impact can, for example,
puncture a vital component or create a transient cloud of ions that
can short-circuit an electrical system. Consequently, protection
against micrometeoroid impacts has become a necessary element of
space hardware design. Components of the Earth-orbiting
International Space Station use a “dust bumper,” or Whipple shield
(named for its inventor, the American astronomer Fred Whipple),
to guard against damage from micrometeoroids and orbiting debris.
Spacesuits intended for extravehicular activity also incorporate
micrometeoroid protection in their outer layers.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Subscribe Now

Analyses of micrometeoroid pitting on Earth-orbiting satellites

indicate that about 30,000 tons a year of interplanetary dust
strike Earth’s upper atmosphere, mostly particles between 50 μm
and 1 mm (0.002–0.04 inch) in size. Particles from space larger
than a few hundred micrometres—i.e., meteoroids—are heated so
severely during deceleration in the atmosphere that they vaporize,
producing a glowing meteor trail. Smaller particles experience less-
severe heating and survive, eventually settling to Earth’s surface.
When found in Earth’s atmosphere or on its surface, they are often
referred to as micrometeorites or cosmic dust particles.

Using high-altitude research aircraft, the U.S. National Aeronautics

and Space Administration has collected cosmic dust particles
directly from Earth’s stratosphere, where the concentration of
terrestrial dust is low. Particles larger than 50 μm are relatively
uncommon there, however, which makes their collection by aircraft
impractical. These larger particles have been collected in sediment
that has been filtered from large volumes of melted polar ice.
Spacecraft missions have been developed to retrieve dust particles
directly from space. The U.S. Stardust spacecraft, launched in 1999,
flew past Comet Wild 2 in early 2004, collecting particles from its
coma for return to Earth. In 2003 Japan’s space agency launched
its Hayabusa spacecraft to return small amounts of surface
material, comprising fragments and dust, from the near-
Earth asteroid Itokawa for laboratory analysis.

Some cosmic dust particles gathered from the stratosphere are the
least-altered samples of early solar system dust that have been
studied in the laboratory. They provide clues to the temperature,
pressure, and chemical composition of the nebular cloud from
which the solar system condensed 4.6 billion years ago. (See solar
system: Origin of the solar system.) The continuous accretion of
micrometeorites on early Earth may have contributed
organic compounds that were important for the development of life.
A few micrometeorites are thought to contain preserved interstellar
grains—samples of matter from outside the solar system.
(See interstellar medium.) Spacecraft sample-return missions to
comets and asteroids should provide scientists on Earth the
opportunity to study even better-preserved material from the birth
of the solar system.