Effects of solar radiation on the orbits of small particles

Revised equations of motion are formulated on more general assumptions than hitherto making allowance for some reflection of sunlight by a dust-particle, and from these the secular rates of change of the orbital elements of the particle are obtained. The equation for the eccentricity yields numerical results for the time taken for given changes in this element to occur. Other elements turn out to be expressible in terms of the eccentricity and thence are effectively also known in terms of the time. More general forms of earlier results are found, and some new mathematical results in the theory of the process are derived. The time of infall to the Sun associated with almost circular initial motion of a particle is calculated, and also the time from an orbit of initially high eccentricity. In this latter case, infall takes place much more rapidly than from a circular orbit of radius comparable with the average distance in the eccentric orbit. The effect on a particle of a long-period comet during a single return is negligible compared with the change in its binding-energy to the Sun that will in general result from planetary action. The possible history of a dust-particle from original capture by the Sun to final infall to the solar surface is briefly considered.