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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
In-situ measurements of interplanetary dust have been performed in the heliocentric distance range from 0.3 AU out to 18 AU. Due to their small sensitive areas (typically 0.01 m2 for the highly sensitive impact ionization sensors) or low mass sensitivities (≥10−9g of the large area penetration detectors) previous instruments recorded only a few 100 impacts during their lifetimes. Nevertheless, important information on the distribution of dust in interplanetary space has been obtained between 0.3 and 18 AU distance from the Sun. The Galileo dust detector combines the high mass sensitivity of impact ionization detectors (10−15 g) together with a large sensitive area (0.1 m2). The Galileo spacecraft was launched on October 18, 1989 and is on its solar system cruise towards Jupiter. Initial measurements of the dust flux from 0.7 to 1.2 AU are presented.