Göttingen 2025 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik
EP 5: Near-Earth Space I & Planets and Small Bodies II
EP 5.4: Vortrag
Dienstag, 1. April 2025, 17:15–17:30, ZHG005
Kinetic simulations of Helium in the Hermean plasma environment — •Fabio Prencipe1,2, Markus Fränz1, Harald Krüger1,3, Norbert Krupp1, Daniel Heyner2, and Ferdinand Plaschke2 — 1Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany — 2Institute of Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics, TU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany — 3Planetary Exploration Research Center, Chiba Institute of Technology, Narashino, Japan
Helium was first detected in the Hermean exosphere by the Mariner 10 spacecraft. Sources of the Hermean helium population include outgassing, capture of solar wind He2+, and interstellar pickup He+. Different processes can lead to a change in ionization of helium, e.g. photoionization by solar radiation. Ionized helium can be convected and lost from the plasma environment because of the interaction of the Hermean magnetic field with the solar wind. The abundances of the different helium species in the different Hermean regions are an indicator of the respective dominant helium sources and losses.
The aim of this study is to model the different species of helium in the Hermean magnetosphere in preparation for the arrival of the ESA spacecraft Bepi Colombo. Simple MHD simulations of Mercury’s magnetosphere are combined with kinetic simulations of helium atoms. The kinetic simulations include ionization and loss processes in order to investigate the evolution of the different helium species. A statistical analysis of the helium atoms is used to study the ratios of the helium species in the different regions of the Hermean environment.
Keywords: Mercury; BepiColombo; interstellar helium; planetary helium; particle tracing