The ρ-Geminid meteoroid stream: orbits, spectroscopic data and implications for its parent body

Abstract

By using an array of high-sensitivity CCD video devices and spectrographs, the activity of meteor events from the poorly-known ρ-Geminid meteoroid stream has been monitored during January 2012 and 2013. As a result of this research, the atmospheric trajectory and radiant position of 10 of these events has been obtained, but also the orbital parameters of the progenitor meteoroids and the tensile strength of these particles. The data reveal that the progenitor of this stream must be a comet. In addition, the emission spectra produced by three ρ-Geminid meteors were also recorded. These are the first ρ-Geminid spectra discussed in the scientific literature, and have provided clues about the chemical nature of these meteoroids and their parent body.

Analysis of the September ε-Perseid outburst in 2013

“…As can be seen in Figure 1, the initial height H b increases with increasing meteoroid mass. This behaviour has been also found for other meteor showers with a cometary origin (see, e.g., Koten et al 2004, Jenniskens 2004, Madiedo 2015. We have described this behaviour by means of a linear relationship between H b and the logarithm of the meteoroid photometric mass (solid line in Figure 1).…”

“…According to this result, the increase of the beginning height with meteoroid mass is less important for the September ε-Perseids than for the Leonids (a = 9.9 ± 1.5), the Perseids (a = 7.9 ± 1.3), the Taurids (a = 6.6 ± 2.2), and the Orionids (a = 5.02 ± 0.65) (Koten et al 2004). But more pronounced than for the ρ-Geminids (a = 1.1 ± 0.5), which are produced by tough cometary meteoroids (Madiedo 2015), and the Geminids (a = 0.46 ± 0.26) (Koten et al 2004), which have an asteroidal origin (Jenniskens 2004).…”

“…The slope of the line we have employed to model this behaviour (solid line in Figure 2) yields -2.25 ± 0.45. Since slower meteoroids tend to penetrate deeper in the atmosphere, it is not surprising that SPE meteoroids, which exhibit an initial velocity of ~65 km s -1 , do not penetrate as deep as the Perseids with a preatmospheric velocity of ~61 km s -1 (Koten 2004), the Geminids with a velocity of ~36 km s -1 (Jenniskens 2004), or the ρ-Geminids with a velocity of about 23 km s -1 (Madiedo 2015).…”

The Northern ω-Scorpiid Meteoroid Stream: Orbits and Emission Spectra

“…where v is the velocity of the meteoroid and ρ atm the atmospheric density at the between 95 and 100 km for the mass range considered here. This situation for H b is similar to that found for the asteroidal Geminid meteoroids, and different to the behaviour exhibited by cometary meteoroids, where the initial height increases with increasing meteoroid mass (Jenniskens 2004, Madiedo 2015. This suggests an asteroidal origin for the NSC meteoroid stream, as is also deduced from the averaged value found for the Tisserand parameter (Table 3), which yields T J = 3.52 ± 0.08.…”

Impact Event, Total Lunar Eclipse

“…According to the observations performed by meteor-observing stations operating in the framework of the SMART project (Madiedo 2015(Madiedo , 2017, the two likely sources of the meteoroid that produced the impact flash recorded on 21 January 2019 were the sporadic meteoroid background and the January Comae Berenicid (JCO) meteoroid stream (Madiedo et al 2019a).…”