Search for pairs and groups in the 2006 Geminid meteor shower

Koten, Pavel; Čapek, D.; Spurný, Pavel; Štork, R.; Vojáček, Vlastimil; Bednář, Jan

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202141809

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…As the number of meteors observed in a short time interval increases, the likelihood of the presence of a cluster increases. The search for meteor pairs and groups among the Geminid meteors found no evidence for their existence within this meteor shower (Koten et al 2021). If the cluster is observed during activity of a weak meteor shower or if the meteors are sporadic, the probability of a real connection between the meteoroids increases anew.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Properties, age, and origin of a huge meteor cluster observed over Scandinavia on 30 October 2022

Koten,

Čapek,

Midtskogen

et al. 2024

A&A

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A meteor outburst consisting of at least 22 meteors above the Baltic sea and southern Scandinavia that occurred on 30 October 2022 was recorded using multiple cameras. A bright fireball was followed by fainter meteors over a 10 second period. All the meteors were travelling on parallel trajectories. The goal of this study is to determine the atmospheric trajectories and photometric masses of meteors and to use these data to determine the specifics of the progenitor meteoroid break-up and cluster formation. Double and triple-station observations using video cameras were used for the calculation of the atmospheric trajectories and photometric masses of the meteors. Their relative positions and mass distribution were then used to determine the time and cause of the meteoroid fragmentation. The relative position of the cluster particles in the atmosphere and the distribution of their masses best correspond to the separation of the smaller fragments from the mass-dominant fragment 10.6pm 1.7 days before the collision with Earth, assuming a meteoroid bulk density of 1000 kg.m The ejection velocities are in the range 0.16-0.61 m.s The directions of the ejection velocities are bounded by a cone with an apex angle of $43^ The axis of this cone has ecliptic coordinates of $l=154^ and $b=26^ and is $66^ away from the direction to the Sun. Thermal stresses appear to be the most likely cause of such meteor cluster formation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Properties, age, and origin of a huge meteor cluster observed over Scandinavia on 30 October 2022

Koten,

Čapek,

Midtskogen

et al. 2024

A&A

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“…However, the question is whether these meteoroids are actually physically related. Similarly, Koten et al (2021) observed three Geminid meteors within 0.9 s and they cannot rule out the possibility that the triplet is only a result of chance. Piers & Hawkes (1993) observed five meteors in a fraction of a second over Canada in 1985.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Ejection velocities, age, and formation process of SPE meteoroid cluster

Čapek

Koten

Spurný

et al. 2022

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Context. Meteoroid clusters represent a unique opportunity to study processes of meteoroid disruptions in interplanetary space. We follow our previous work about the September epsilon Perseid (SPE) meteoroid cluster from 2016 with a detailed analysis of the observed data and cluster formation conditions. Aims. Our goal is to determine ejection velocities of the cluster members and SPE's age, as well as to estimate the most probable formation process. Methods. We precisely determined mutual positions and masses of all meteoroids including the errors. We assumed that the massdominated meteoroid is the parent body of the cluster and that the observed positions of meteoroids are controlled by the ejection velocities and the action of solar radiation pressure. A formula for the dependence of meteoroid ejection velocities on the mutual positions, masses, and cluster age was derived. It was assumed that the time at which the initial kinetic energy of all meteoroids reached a minimum value corresponds to the age of the cluster. Knowing values and directions of ejection velocities together with meteoroid masses then allowed us to determine the most likely process of cluster formation.Results. The meteoroids occupy a volume of 66 × 67 × 50 km and are shifted in the antisolar direction by 27 km relative to the parent meteoroid. The age of the cluster is 2.28 ± 0.44 days. The ejection velocities range from 0.13 ± 0.05 m s −1 to 0.77 ± 0.34 m s −1 with a mean value of 0.35 m s −1 . The ejection velocity directions are inside the cone with an apex angle of 101 ± 5 • . The axis of the cone is ∼ 45 • away from the solar direction and ∼ 34 • away from the mean direction of the flux of small meteoroids' incident on the parent meteoroid. Formation due to the separation of part of the surface due to very fast rotation is the least likely thing to occur. We estimate the rotation frequency to be about 2 Hz and the corresponding stress is several orders of magnitude lower than the predicted strength limit. It is also difficult to explain the formation of the cluster by an impact of a small meteoroid on the parent body. However, this possibility, although not very likely, cannot be completely ruled out. The most probable process is the exfoliation due to thermal stresses. Their estimated magnitude is sufficient and the derived ejection velocities are consistent with this process of formation.

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“…Therefore, the frequency of meteoroid self-fragmentation in space has implications for our current understanding of the Solar System. Since Koten et al (2017), only one meteor cluster observation has been reported (University of Hawaii 2021), although an extensive search was recently performed among the Geminids (Koten et al 2021). One open question refers to the frequency of spontaneous meteoroid breakup in interplanetary space, which would lead to meteor clusters and how these breakups would influence the lifetime expectancy of meteoroids.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 2022τ-Herculid meteor cluster from an airborne experiment: automated detection, characterization, and consequences for meteoroids

Vaubaillon

Loir

C.³

et al. 2023

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Context. The existence of meteor clusters has long since been a subject of speculation and so far only seven events have been reported, among which two involve less than five meteors, and three were seen during the Leonid storms. Aims. The 1995 outburst of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann was predicted to result in a meteor shower in May 2022. We detected the shower, proved this to be the result of this outburst, and detected another meteor cluster during the same observation mission. Methods. The τ-Herculids meteor shower outburst on 31 May 2022 was continuously monitored for 4 h during an airborne campaign. The video data were analyzed using a recently developed computer-vision processing chain for meteor real-time detection. Results. We report and characterize the detection of a meteor cluster involving 38 fragments, detected at 06:48 UT for a total duration of 11.3 s. The derived cumulative size frequency distribution index is relatively shallow: s = 3.1. Our open-source computer-vision processing chain (named FMDT) detects 100% of the meteors that a human eye is able to detect in the video. Classical automated motion detection assuming a static camera was not suitable for the stabilized camera setup because of residual motion. Conclusions. From all reported meteor clusters, we crudely estimate their occurrence to be less than one per million observed meteors. Low heliocentric distance enhances the probability of such meteoroid self-disruption in the interplanetary space.

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Search for pairs and groups in the 2006 Geminid meteor shower

Cited by 4 publications

References 16 publications

Properties, age, and origin of a huge meteor cluster observed over Scandinavia on 30 October 2022

Properties, age, and origin of a huge meteor cluster observed over Scandinavia on 30 October 2022

Ejection velocities, age, and formation process of SPE meteoroid cluster

A 2022τ-Herculid meteor cluster from an airborne experiment: automated detection, characterization, and consequences for meteoroids

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