The problem of linking minor meteor showers to their parent bodies: initial considerations |
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Authors: | Paul Wiegert Peter Brown |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada |
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Abstract: | Efforts to link minor meteor showers to their parent bodies have been hampered both by the lack of high-accuracy orbits for
weak showers and the incompleteness of our sample of potential parent bodies. The Canadian Meteor Orbital Radar (CMOR) has
accumulated over one million meteor orbits. From this large data set, the existence of weak showers and the accuracy of the
mean orbits of these showers can be improved. The ever-growing catalogue of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) provides the complimentary
data set for the linking procedure. By combining a detailed examination of the background of sporadic meteors near the orbit
in question (which the radar data makes possible) and by computing the statistical significance of any shower association
(which the improved NEA sample allows) any proposed shower–parent link can be tested much more thoroughly than in the past.
Additional evidence for the links is provided by a single-station meteor radar at the CMOR site which can be used to dispel
confusion between very weak showers and statistical fluctuations in the sporadic background. The use of these techniques and
data sets in concert will allow us to confidently link some weak streams to their parent bodies on a statistical basis, while
at the same time showing that previously identified minor showers have little or no activity and that some previously suggested
linkages may simply be chance alignments. |
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Keywords: | Asteroids comets meteor showers meteor radar |
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