The Influence of Water on the Formation of a Dusty Plasma Exosphere above the Surface of an Asteroid

It is shown that the features of the formation of a dusty plasma system above the surface of an asteroid, compared to typical airless celestial bodies such as the Moon, Mercury, the moons of Mars, and others, are primarily associated with two factors: the influence of water on asteroids and the influence of processes involving the interaction of dust with gas flow (for active asteroids). The possibility of water formation in the near-surface regolith of an asteroid is noted, within the framework of a mechanism involving the interaction of solar wind protons with the asteroid’s regolith in the presence of silver sulfide. It is demonstrated that in the formation of a dusty plasma system near an active asteroid, not only are electrostatic interactions important but also processes related to gas flow from areas of the asteroid’s surface containing water. In this case, it becomes possible to interpret relatively large dust particles as levitating above the asteroid’s surface, while smaller particles do not levitate and are carried away by the gas flow from the asteroid’s surface.