The Earth's Dust Belt: Fact or fiction?: 3. Lunar ejecta

Abstract

We have studied in considerable detail the orbits of small dust particles ejected from the lunar surface during meteorite-moon collisions. Only a small percentage enter into geocentric orbits; of these, almost none remains in such an orbit for more than one year. Using an upper-bound estimate on the amount of dust that the moon might supply to cislunar space, we conclude that lunar ejecta do not cause an appreciable enhancement of the near-earth dust concentration.