Advances in observation and theory of interplanetary dust

Interplanetary dust is solid ejecta from various celestial bodies (e.g., comets and asteroids). They are ubiquitous in the solar system, and serve as one of the main constituents of the solar system. The exploration of interplanetary dust is helpful for understanding the origin and evolution of small bodies in the solar system. Solar wind plasma and solar ultraviolet radiation charge these dust particles, revealing them to the solar wind. The particles are thus subject to gravity, radiation pressure, electromagnetic forces, and the Poynting-Robertson effect. Detection of such particles has been a challenge to the space science community, because of the wide range distribution of particle sizes. For the same reason, the dynamics of interplanetary dust studies both single particle kinetics on sub-micrometer scale and collective effects on millions of kilometer scale. This review lists the processes to determine the charge state and dynamics of the interplanetary dust, introduces the dynamics of dusty plasmas, and presents some research highlights based on the Parker Solar Probe measurements in the inner heliosphere.