Puerto Lápice eucrite fall: Strewn field,physical description,probable fireball trajectory,and orbit

Abstract— The fall of the Puerto Lápice eucrite occurred on May 10, 2007, at 17 h 57 m 30 ± 30 s UTC. Its daylight fireball was witnessed by hundreds of people from Spain, and produced a meteorite fall associated with a large strewn field of fragments. There were no direct pictures of the fireball, but several pictures of the fireball's train were taken from different locations in Spain. Additional theodolite calibrations of visual records were made in order to find the most probable fireball trajectory based on the available data. The shape of the meteorite strewn field was considered as well. Although the orbit of the Puerto Lápice meteoroid could not be computed due to the absence of velocity data, we assumed a likely range of geocentric velocities and computed a range of possible orbits. All solutions show that the body was in an Apollo‐type orbit, with low inclination and perihelion distance just below 1 astronomical unit (AU). This is the first case that an orbit can be discussed for an HED meteorite fall.     

Farmington Meteorite: A fragment of an Apollo asteriod?

We have attempted to reconstruct the orbit of the Farmington L5 chondrite which fell in Kansas in 1890. Because its radiation age is uniquely short (25 000 years), its orbit should still closely resemble that of its parent body. A search of 280 contemporary newspapers and other sources turned up more than 60 useable eyewitness reports from 32 localities, which led to the following estimate of the apparent radiant: height 60°, azimuth 20°, with an uncertainty of about 10°. Orbital elements were determined for this radiant for four plausible preatmospheric velocities: 13, 16, 19, and 22 km/sec. The results show quite definitely that Farmington had a small orbit of low inclination: semimajor axis 1–1.9 AU, perihelion ? 0.4 AU, aphelion ? 3.0 AU, inclination ? 16°. Because of the short radiation age, the parent body of Farmington must already have been in an Earth-crossing orbit when the meteorite was ejected from it by an impact. Of the 11 known Earth-crossing asteroids with encounter velocities below 22 km/sec, 1862 Apollo, Hermes, and 1865 Cerberus are passable matches, while 1620 Geographos and 1685 Toro are more marginal possibilities. Apparently Earth-crossing asteroids are the immediate parent bodies of at least some meteorites. Their ultimate source must be the ultimate source of most stony meteorites.     

The nature of the Tunguska meteorite

Abstract— Arguments in favor of the cometary origin of the Tunguska meteorite are adduced along with reasons against the asteroidal hypothesis. A critical analysis is given for the hypotheses by Sekanina (1983) and Chyba et al. (1993). On the basis of the azimuth and inclination of the trajectory of the Tunguska body with plausible values of the geocentric velocity, the semimajor axis of the orbit and its inclination to the ecliptic plane are calculated for this body. It is noted that the theory of the disintegration of large bodies in the atmosphere put forward by Chyba et al. (1993) is crude. Applying more accurate theories (Grigoryan, 1979; Hills and Goda, 1993) as well as taking into account the realistic shape of the body yield for the cometary body lower disruption heights than obtained by Chyba et al. Numerical simulations carried out by Svettsov et al. agree well with the cometary hypothesis and the analytical calculations based on Grigoryan's theory. The asteroidal hypothesis is shown not to be tenable: the complete lack of stony fragments in the region of the catastrophe, cosmochemical data (in particular, the results of an isotope analysis), and some other information contradict this hypothesis. It is shown that stony fragments that would have originated in the explosive disruption of the Tunguska body would not be vaporized by the radiation of the vapor cloud nor as a result of their fall to the Earth's surface.     

THE TUNGUSKA EVENT AND THE METEORS WITH TERMINAL FLARES

The comparison of the Tunguska body explosion with the effect of terminal flares of meteors and fireballs leads us to the conclusion that these events are of a similar nature but differ only by their scale. We consider that the dynamics of progressive breaking and evaporation of meteoric bodies during their entry into the terrestrial atmosphere could explain the terminal burst. An extremely porous body model for the Tunguska meteorite was analysed and rejected as unsatisfactory. The realistic values of the initial velocity (～30 km/sec) and of the inclination angle for the Tunguska's trajectory (5–15°) give orbital elements not in contradiction with the cometary origin of the Tunguska body.     

Draconids 2011: Outburst Observations by the Croatian Meteor Network

The predicted Draconid meteor shower outburst during October 2011 had been observed by a portion of the Croatian Meteor Network whose stations encountered clear weather. A total of 95 Draconid orbits have been calculated from 18 contributing stations, and in this paper we present results for 63 orbits obtained from the fully automatic observation and processing pipeline. Two methods of trajectory estimation were applied, showing better fit results using a linearly changing velocity model versus a constant velocity model. The estimated mean radiant position has been found to be at RA = 262.6°, Dec = +55.7°, with estimated geocentric velocity Vg = 20.7 km/s.     

The Berduc L6 chondrite fall: Meteorite characterization,trajectory, and orbital elements

Abstract– The fall of the Berduc meteorite took place on April 7, 2008, at 01 h 02 min 28 s ± 1 s UTC. A daylight fireball was witnessed by hundreds of people from Argentina and Uruguay, and also recorded by an infrasound array in Paraguay. From the available data, the fireball trajectory and radiant have been reconstructed with moderate accuracy. The modeled trajectory was tested to fit the infrasound and strewn field data. From the computed apparent radiant α = 87 ± 2° and δ = ?11 ± 2° and taking into account a range of plausible initial velocities, we obtained a range of orbital solutions. All of them suggest that the progenitor meteoroid originated from the main asteroid belt and followed an orbit of low inclination. Based on petrography, mineral chemistry, magnetic susceptibility, and bulk chemistry, the Berduc meteorite is classified as an L6 ordinary chondrite.     

Searching for the Parent of the Tunguska Cosmic Body

We present the results of an extensive study of the Tunguska Cosmic Body (TCB) origin on dynamical grounds. To identify the TCB parent, or a plausible candidate, we applied the well-known concept of dynamical similarity whereby we have compared the geocentric and heliocentric dynamical parameters of a selected set of the Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and TCB particles. First, we made use the idea of Kresak by comparing geocentric coordinates of the TCB radiant with those of the NEOs. Second, we studied the long-term dynamical evolution of all NEOs and TCB particles searching for similarities between their heliocentric orbits. As a general result, we observed many more similar cases and a different pattern of the high orbital similarity among the TCB particles and the asteroid orbits than we did for comets.     

Analytical investigations of quasi-circular frozen orbits in the Martian gravity field

Frozen orbits are always important foci of orbit design because of their valuable characteristics that their eccentricity and argument of pericentre remain constant on average. This study investigates quasi-circular frozen orbits and examines their basic nature analytically using two different methods. First, an analytical method based on Lagrangian formulations is applied to obtain constraint conditions for Martian frozen orbits. Second, Lie transforms are employed to locate these orbits accurately, and draw the contours of the Hamiltonian to show evolutions of the equilibria. Both methods are verified by numerical integrations in an 80 × 80 Mars gravity field. The simulations demonstrate that these two analytical methods can provide accurate enough results. By comparison, the two methods are found well consistent with each other, and both discover four families of Martian frozen orbits: three families with small eccentricities and one family near the critical inclination. The results also show some valuable conclusions: for the majority of Martian frozen orbits, argument of pericentre is kept at 270° because J ₃ has the same sign as J ₂; while for a minority of ones with low altitude and low inclination, argument of pericentre can be kept at 90° because of the effect of the higher degree odd zonals; for the critical inclination cases, argument of pericentre can also be kept at 90°. It is worthwhile to note that there exist some special frozen orbits with extremely small eccentricity, which could provide much convenience for reconnaissance. Finally, the stability of Martian frozen orbits is estimated based on the trace of the monodromy matrix. The analytical investigations can provide good initial conditions for numerical correction methods in the more complex models.     

Exceptional Fireball Activity of Orionids in 2006

We report exceptional fireball activity of the Orionid meteor shower in 2006. During four nights in October 2006 the autonomous fireball observatories of the Czech part of the European Fireball Network (EN) recorded 48 fireballs belonging to the Orionids. This is significantly more than the total number of Orionids recorded during about five decades long continuous operation of the EN. Based on precise multi-station photographic and radiometric data we present accurate atmospheric trajectories, heliocentric orbits, light curves and basic physical properties of 10 Orionid fireballs with atmospheric trajectories that were long enough and, with one exception, were observed from at least three stations. Seven were recorded in within a 2-h interval in the night of 20/21 October. Their basic parameters such as radiant positions and heliocentric orbits are very similar. This high fireball activity originated from a very compact geocentric radiant defined by α = 95.10° ± 0.10° and δ = 15.50° ± 0.06°. These fireballs most likely belonged to a distinct filament of larger meteoroids trapped in 1:5 resonance with Jupiter. From detailed light curves and basic fireball classification we found that these meteoroids appertain to the weakest component of interplanetary matter.     

Discovering research value in the Campo del Cielo,Argentina, meteorite craters

Abstract The Campo del Cielo meteorite crater field in Argentina contains at least 20 small meteorite craters, but a recent review of the field data and a remote sensing study suggest that there may be more. The fall occurred ～4000 years ago into a uniform loessy soil, and the craters are well enough preserved so that some of their parameters of impact can be determined after excavation. The craters were formed by multi-ton fragments of a type IA meteoroid with abundant silicate inclusions. Relative to the horizontal, the angle of infall was ～9°. Reflecting the low angle of infall, the crater field is elongated with apparent dimensions of 3 × 18.5 km. The largest craters are near the center of this ellipse. This suggests that when the parent meteoroid broke apart, the resulting fragments diverged from the original trajectory in inverse relation to their masses and did not undergo size sorting due to atmospheric deceleration. The major axis of the crater field as we know it extends along N63°E, but the azimuths of infall determined by excavation of Craters 9 and 10 are N83.5°E and N75.5°E, respectively. This suggests that the major axis of the crater field is not yet well determined. The three or four largest craters appear to have been formed by impacts that disrupted the projectiles, scattering fragments around the outsides of the craters and leaving no large masses within them; these are relatively symmetrical in shape. Other craters are elongated features with multi-ton masses preserved within them and no fragmentation products outside. There are two ways in which field research on the Campo del Cielo crater field is found to be useful. (1) Studies exist that have been used to interpret impact craters on planetary surfaces other than the Earth. This occurrence of a swarm of projectiles impacting at known angles and similar velocities into a uniform target material provides an excellent field site at which to test the applicability of those studies. (2) Individual craters at Campo del Cielo can yield the masses of the projectiles that formed them and their velocities, angles and azimuths of impact. From these data, there is a possibility to estimate parameters for the parent meteoroid at entry and, thus, learn enough about its orbit to judge whether or not it was compatible with an asteroidal origin. Preliminary indications are that it was. Campo del Cielo is a IA iron meteorite and Sikhote-Alin, an observed fall, is a IIB iron meteorite in Wasson's classification. The Sterlitamak iron, also an observed fall, is a medium octahedrite in the Prior-Hey classification. It would be interesting to compare their orbital parameters.     

Associations Between Asteroids and Meteoroid Streams

The recent systematic monitoring of the skies has led to the discovery of an increasingly large number of objects on Earth approaching orbits. Not surprisingly, an increasing number of this population have also been associated with meteoroid streams in the literature. We will review the history of this topic. We have also conducted our own search for asteroids moving on orbits that are similar to the orbits of known fireball streams. As NEOs are moving in prograde orbits with low geocentric velocities, any potential streams will have large radiant areas and in consequence, may have been identified as several "sub-streams". This greatly hampers both their detection and their recognition as single meteoroid streams. With the large number of Near Earth Asteroids detected, the probability of two orbits being similar at the present time by coincidence is high. We have therefore also investigated the evolution of the orbits and only include as real asteroid-stream pairs those where the evolution is also similar over 5000 years. We have identified nine pairs, including the well known pair of the Geminid meteoroid stream and asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Currently there are a number of papers being published on the pairing of asteroid 2003 EH1 and the Quadrantid meteoroid stream. Because of the newness of the research and the fact that this is a high inclination pair, we have excluded this pair from our discussions.     

Where are the Uranus Trojans?

The area of stable motion for fictitious Trojan asteroids around Uranus’ equilateral equilibrium points is investigated with respect to the inclination of the asteroid’s orbit to determine the size of the regions and their shape. For this task we used the results of extensive numerical integrations of orbits for a grid of initial conditions around the points L ₄ and L ₅, and analyzed the stability of the individual orbits. Our basic dynamical model was the Outer Solar System (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune). We integrated the equations of motion of fictitious Trojans in the vicinity of the stable equilibrium points for selected orbits up to the age of the Solar system of 5 × 10⁹ years. One experiment has been undertaken for cuts through the Lagrange points for fixed values of the inclinations, while the semimajor axes were varied. The extension of the stable region with respect to the initial semimajor axis lies between 19.05 ≤ a ≤ 19.3 AU but depends on the initial inclination. In another run the inclination of the asteroids’ orbit was varied in the range 0° < i < 60° and the semimajor axes were fixed. It turned out that only four ‘windows’ of stable orbits survive: these are the orbits for the initial inclinations 0° < i < 7°, 9° < i < 13°, 31° < i < 36° and 38° < i < 50°. We postulate the existence of at least some Trojans around the Uranus Lagrange points for the stability window at small and also high inclinations.     

Follow-up Ephemerides and the Accuracy of Preliminary Orbits

The accuracy of follow-up ephemerides and orbits of asteroids based on a short arc is investigated. The geocentric distance and its time derivative are the essential parameters determining the accuracy of predicted positions. The consequences for the optimal observing strategies are discussed. The node and inclination of the orbital plane are restricted enough to be useful for a preliminary sorting of candidates for linking.     

Direction finding measurements of type III bursts in both elevation and azimuth

Direction finding measurements with the plasma wave experiments on the HAWKEYE 1 and IMP-8 satellites are used to find the source locations of type III solar radio bursts in elevation (geocentric solar ecliptic latitude) and azimuth (geocentric solar ecliptic longitude) in a frequency range from 31.1 kHz to 500 kHz. IMP-8 has its spin axis perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, hence by analyzing the spin modulation of the signals the location of the type III burst projected into the ecliptic can be found. HAWKEYE 1 has its spin axis nearly parallel to the ecliptic plane, hence the elevation of the source may also be determined. The trajectory of the electrons generating the burst, projected onto the ecliptic plane, follows an Archimedean spiral. Out of the ecliptic plane the trajectory is at a nearly constant heliographic latitude. The electrons originate from a region near a solar flare. With direction measurements of elevation and azimuth along with the modulation factor it is possible to determine the source size. Typical half angle source sizes range from 60° at 500 kHz to 40° at 56.2 kHz as viewed from the sun.     

No iridium anomaly after the 1908 Tunguska impact: Evidence from a Greenland ice core

Abstract— We have determined the abundances of Ir and other elements by neutron activation analysis on annual dust samples from an ice core from Site B in the Crête region in central Greenland covering the years 1905–1914. Iridium was detected in all samples, but we found no excess Ir above the background in the years following the Tunguska event. The lack of an Ir anomaly in the years after the Tunguska impact combined with the knowledge of the energy released during the impact and our present knowledge about stratospheric transport implies either a very low Ir content of the impactor or an exceptionally high geocentric velocity for the impactor.     

Analysis of the orbit of Cosmos 72 (1965-53B) near 15th-order resonance

Cosmos 72 (1965-53B) was launched on 16 April 1965 into a near-circular orbit with an average height of 570 km and inclination 56°. Over the years, the orbit has contracted slowly under the influence of air drag, and On 27 June 1972 passed through exact 15th-order resonance, when successive equator crossings are 24° apart in longitude and the ground track repeats after 15 rev. The orbit has been determined at seven epochs between April 1972 and February 1973, using the RAE orbit refinement program PROP, with 544 optical and radar observations: the average orbital accuracy is about 50 m in height and 0.0008° in inclination.For Cosmos 72 the change in inclination at 15th-order resonance, due to perturbations by 15th-order harmonics in the geopotential, is greater than for any satellite previously analysed— nearly 0.07°—and analysis of the change, using the seven PROP orbits and 45 U.S. Navy orbits, yields equations accurate to 4 per cent for the geopotential coefficients of order 15 and odd degree (15, 17, 19 …). A similar analysis of the variation in eccentricity gives less accurate equations for coefficients of order 15 and even degree (16, 18 …). The variations in right ascension of the node and argument of perigee have also been analysed.     

Eccentricity Generation in Hierarchical Triple Systems with Non-coplanar and Initially Circular Orbits

In a previous paper, we developed a technique for estimating the inner eccentricity in coplanar hierarchical triple systems on initially circular orbits, with comparable masses and with well-separated components, based on an expansion of the rate of change of the Runge-Lenz vector. Now, the same technique is extended to non-coplanar orbits. However, it can only be applied to systems with I ₀ < 39.23° or I ₀ > 140.77°, where I is the inclination of the two orbits, because of complications arising from the so-called ‘Kozai effect’. The theoretical model is tested against results from numerical integrations of the full equations of motion. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Resolving Azimuth Ambiguity Using Vertical Nature of Solar Quiet-Sun Magnetic Fields

The measurement of solar magnetic fields using the Zeeman effect diagnostics has a fundamental 180° ambiguity in the determination of the azimuth angle of the transverse field component. There are several methods that are used in the community and each one has its merits and demerits. Here we present a disambiguation idea that is based on the assumption that most of the magnetic field on the sun is predominantly vertical. While the method is not applicable to penumbra or other features harboring predominantly horizontal fields like the sheared neutral lines, it is useful for regions where fields are predominantly vertical like network and plage areas. The method is tested with the full-disk solar vector magnetograms observed by the SOLIS/VSM instrument. We find that statistically about 60?–?85 % of the pixels in a typical full-disk magnetogram has a field inclination in the range of 0?–?30° with respect to the local solar normal, and thus can be successfully disambiguated by the proposed method. Due to its non-iterative nature, the present method is extremely fast and therefore can be used as a good initial guess for iterative schemes like the non-potential field computation (NPFC) method. Furthermore, the method is insensitive to noisy pixels as it does not depend upon the neighboring pixels or derivatives.     

On the orbital dependence of the asteroidal collision process

Collision of asteroids with the main-belt asteroid population is considered with the effect of the impact kinetic energy taken into account. It is found that objects in eccentric orbits have a larger probability of destructive collision as compared to objects in orbits with mean values of eccentricity (e = 0.15) and inclination (i = 10°); also orbits with small semimajor axes (a ≈ 2.3 AU) are found to have peak values of the probability of destructive collision.     

On the long-period evolution of the sun-synchronous orbits

The dynamic evolution of sun-synchronous orbits at a time interval of 20 years is considered. The numerical motion simulation has been carried out using the Celestial Mechanics software package developed at the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Bern. The dependence of the dynamic evolution on the initial value of the ascending node longitude is examined for two families of sun-synchronous orbits with altitudes of 751 and 1191 km. Variations of the semimajor axis and orbit inclination are obtained depending on the initial value of the ascending node longitude. Recommendations on the selection of orbits, in which spent sun-synchronous satellites can be moved, are formulated. Minimal changes of elements over a time interval of 20 years have been observed for orbits in which at the initial time the angle between the orbit ascending node and the direction of the Sun measured along the equator have been close to 90° or 270°. In this case, the semimajor axis of the orbit is not experiencing secular perturbations arising from the satellite’s passage through the Earth’s shadow.