Tiny particles of cosmic dust (some with masses as low as 1.3 × 10⁻¹⁰ gram or about one-trillionth of a pound) were thought to be present in the solar system and have been recorded by satellites in the near-Earth regions.
These microcosmic particles could be either the residue left over after our solar system was formed some 5 billion years ago, possibly by condensation of huge masses of gas and dust clouds; or, the debris deposited within our system by the far-flung and decaying tails of passing comets; or, the dust trapped from galactic space by the magnetic fields of the Sun and the planets.
Analysis of the more than 1,700 hours of cosmic dust detector data recovered from the flight of Mariner II seems to indicate that in the region between the Earth and Venus the concentration of tiny cosmic dust particles is some ten-thousand times less than that observed near the Earth.
During the 129 days (including the post-encounter period) of Mariner’s mission, the data showed only one dust particle impact which occurred in deep space and not near Venus. Equivalent experiments near Earth (on board Earth satellites) have yielded over 3,700 such impacts within periods of approximately 500 hours. The cause of this heavy near-Earth concentration, the exact types of particles, and their source are still unknown.
The cosmic dust experiment performed well during the Mariner mission. Although some calibration difficulty was observed about two weeks before the Venus encounter, possibly caused by overheating of the sensor crystal, there was no apparent effect in the electronic circuits.
THE UBIQUITOUS SOLAR WIND
For some time prior to Mariner, scientists postulated the existence of a so-called plasma flow or “solar wind” streaming out from the Sun, to explain the motion of comet tails (which always point away from the Sun, perhaps repelled by the plasma), geomagnetic storms, aurorae, and other such disturbances. (Plasma is defined as a gas in which the atoms are dissociated into atomic nuclei and electrons, but which, as a whole, is electrically neutral.)
The solar wind was thought to drastically alter the configuration of the Sun’s external magnetic field. Plasma moving at extreme velocities is able to carry with it the lines of magnetic force originating in the Sun’s corona and to distort any fields it encounters as it moves out from the Sun.
It was believed that these moving plasma currents are also capable of altering the size of a planet’s field of magnetic flux. When this happens, the field on the sunlit face of the planet is compressed and the dark side has an elongated expansion of the field. For example, the outer boundary of the Earth’s magnetic field is pushed in by the solar wind to about 40,000 miles from the Earth on the sunward side. On the dark side, the field extends out much farther.
The solar wind was also known to have an apparent effect on the movement of cosmic rays. As the Sun spots increase in the regular 11-year cycle, the number of cosmic rays reaching the Earth from outside our solar system will decrease.