Detection of 81P/Wild2 dust trail during 2002 and 2003 apparition

Abstract

We have succeeded in detecting a dust trail along the orbit of the short-period comet 81P/Wild2 , the target of the Stardust mission, which will fly by 81P/Wild2 in 2004 January. Based on our observation, it is likely that the trail is composed of dust particles with a diameter of about 1mm. During the flyby phase of the Stardust spacecraft, the spacecraft will come across the impacts of such large dust particles along the comet's orbit. In this study , we examine the impact fluence and impact velocity of the dust particles onto the Stardust spacecraft.