2.3.7 Near-Earth Fragmentation of Cosmic Dust

Abstract

Cosmic dust fragmentation in near-earth space is strongly suggested by the high fluxes (~10²/m²s) of submicron particles observed in the upper atmospheric collection experiments, the lower fluxes (~10^-l/m²s) observed in near-earth space by the lower sensitivity detection experiments and the much lower fluxes (~10⁻⁴/m²s) observed in the deep-space experiments. Various possible fragmentation mechanisms are discussed.