ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Interplanetary dust cloud

An interplanetary dust cloud is a bunch of teeny tiny specks of dust that float all around in space between planets. There are lots of these little specks, and they come from different comets, asteroids, and other space objects that leave a trail of dust and debris behind them as they travel through space.

You can think of it like a really big, dusty, space highway. As objects fly along this highway, they drop a little bit of dust behind them, and that dust just keeps floating around up there.

The dust in an interplanetary dust cloud is so small that you can't see it with your eyes or even with most telescopes. But scientists know it's there because they can detect it with special instruments that can pick up tiny bits of debris.

Even though it's just a bunch of dust, interplanetary dust clouds are really important to scientists because they can tell us a lot about how our solar system formed and how it's changing over time. Plus, studying these clouds can help us learn more about other star systems and galaxies, too!