Kordylewski cloud

Kordylewski clouds are clumps of dust located at 2 out of the 5 special points in space between the Earth and the Moon. The 2 special points are called L4 and L5 Lagrange points. They were discovered by a Polish astronomer in the 1960s, and recently confirmed by the Royal Astronomical Society in October 2018.

Diagram that shows the Lagrangian points of the Earth and Moon system. Kordylewski clouds are located in the regions of L4 and L5.

Discovery and observation

Kordylewski searched for clouds of dust at the Lagrange points in 1951. He first saw them in 1956. He then succeeded in photographing two bright patches near the L5 Lagrange point in between 6 March 1961 to 6 April 1961. J. Wesley Simpson observed the clouds in 1967 using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, and in 2018, the Royal Astronomical Society confirmed their existence. However, the Japanese Hiten space probe did not find the clouds in 1992, although this does not mean they are not there.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Royal Astronomical Society (26 October 2018). "Earth's dust cloud satellites confirmed". EurekAlert!. Archived from the original on 27 October 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Slíz-Balogh, Judit; Barta, András; Horváth, Gábor (11 November 2018). "Celestial mechanics and polarization optics of the Kordylewski dust cloud in the Earth–Moon Lagrange point L5 – I. Three-dimensional celestial mechanical modelling of dust cloud formation". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 480 (4): 5550–5559. arXiv:1910.07466. Bibcode:2018MNRAS.480.5550S. doi:10.1093/mnras/sty2049. S2CID 125609141.
  3. 1 2 3 Slíz-Balogh, Judit; Barta, András; Horváth, Gábor (1 January 2019). "Celestial mechanics and polarization optics of the Kordylewski dust cloud in the Earth–Moon Lagrange point L5 – Part II. Imaging polarimetric observation: new evidence for the existence of Kordylewski dust cloud". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 482 (1): 762–770. arXiv:1910.07471. Bibcode:2019MNRAS.482..762S. doi:10.1093/mnras/sty2630.
  4. ↑ Dobbins, Thomas A. (2007-09-18). Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers: Kordylewski, Kazimierz. Springer. ISBN 9780387304007. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  5. ↑ Kordylewski, Kazimierz (1961). "Photographische Untersuchungen des Librationspunktes L5 im System Erde-Mond". Acta Astronomica (in German). 11 (3): 165–169. Bibcode:1961AcA....11..165K.
  6. 1 2 Laufer, Rene; Wilfried Tost; Oliver Zeile; Ralf Srama; Hans-Peter Roeser (February 2007). The Kordylewsky Clouds — an Example for a Cruise Phase Observation During the Lunar Mission BW1 (PDF). 11th ISU Annual International Symposium. Strasbourg. Retrieved 2018-10-28.
  7. ↑ "Hiten". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NASA. Archived from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2009.
  8. ↑ Wang, Peng; et al. (27 February 2021). "Ground- and Space-Based Observation of Kordylewski Clouds (Review Article)" (PDF). Space: Science & Technology. 2021: 5. doi:10.34133/2021/6597921. 6597921. Retrieved 18 May 2022.