The relationship between the semi-major axis, mass index and age of the Leonid meteor shower

Owing to sublimation of ice, comet nuclei eject dust particles when they are near to the sun. Those particles assume velocities and then vary their orbits to ones similar to that of the comet. The most notable difference between the orbit of the parent comet and those of the particles is their semi-major axes. This difference (Δ a ) has been widely used in modern meteor shower predictions. Observational evidence of the distribution showed that it is a function of Δ a , and the age of the dust trail. However, the relation is not well known. In this paper, a simplified relation between Δ a , the mass index ( s ) and the age of the dust trail is presented, taking the instance of a recent Leonid meteor shower.