A SEARCH FOR KORDYLEWSKI CLOUDS

by

Laurie Ann Holle, Russell Plummer, David C. Schlereth, and Mark G. Strobel

(Harald Schenk - Advisor)

INTRODUCTION

Kordylewski Clouds are dust that collects at the Earth-Moon stable L points, as do the Trojans near the Jupiter-Sun points. These clouds were first discovered in the 1950's by Kordylewski. They have been imaged, but others who have deliberately tried to image them, have not been successful.

It appears therefore that the Kordylewski clouds are variable. This agrees with some calculations which show that a particle in these clouds would eventually be ejected. They appear to have some source that dynamically ejects them from the system, impacts them on the Moon, or turns them into one of the sporatic meteors that strike the Earth.

The clouds are extremely faint when visible, and they require extreme dark skies. Their magnitude appears to border on the naked eye range, but if the Milky Way is not pronounced in your sky then you have no hope of seeing them

Some of the early unsuccessful searches used blue-sensitive photographic plates, while some of the early successful images involved panchromatic plates. There is therefore the hint that the particles are more reflective in the red. This suggests a lunar source. If this is the case, then a search might best be done after the Moon has been bombarded by Leonids and Geminids.

Our plan is to measure the magnitude of stars while the L4 and L5 positions pass in front of them. The magnitude is then compared for a time when the star was away from that spot. A diminished magnitude when the star is passing behind the position could indicate that dust blocked the light. The amount of decrease could help us to calculate a limit for the amount of dust that might be expected in this orbital position.