Novel Insights on the Dust Distribution in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud from PSP/WISPR Observations at Large Elongations

Abstract

Abstract The Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) on the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission maps the brightness produced by the zodiacal dust cloud (ZDC) from an historically unprecedented viewpoint. The brightness results from the scattering of photospheric light by dust particles in the ZDC, and is called zodiacal light (ZL). We exploit the PSP nominal science encounters in orbits 10 through 16 for an in-depth study of the location and brightness evolution of the symmetry axis of the ZL in images taken with the WISPR outer telescope (WISPR-O). During these 11 day encounters, PSP covered heliocentric distances between 0.25 and 0.0617 au (∼53.78−13.28 R ☉) and ∼255° in helioecliptic longitude from within the orbital plane of Venus. The unique WISPR-O viewpoint, which comprises line-of-sight elongations of 80° ± 27°, has led to further insights about the ZDC. Namely, we find that the gravitational pull of the planets warps the ZDC symmetry plane and shifts the ZDC towards the solar system barycenter, creating an east–west asymmetry in the ZL brightness. Additionally, our analysis provides the first consistent observational evidence of a circumsolar dust enhancement resulting from the sublimation of dust grains at ∼25 R ☉. Overall, the WISPR observations from the PSP platform are opening a new window in the remote sensing of the ZDC.