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The Orbital Distribution and Origin of Meteoroids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Duncan Steel
Duncan Steel*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Mathematical PhysicsThe University of AdelaideG.P.O. Box 498, Adelaide, SA 5001Australia

Abstract

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Approximately 68,000 orbits of meteoroids, ranging from sizes of 10 cm and more down to microgram masses, are now available through the IAU Meteor Data Center. These orbits were measured in surveys based in the U.S.S.R., the U.S.A., Canada, Somalia, and Australia, using photographic, radar and television techniques; the data represent our best knowledge of the orbital distributions of smaller solid bodies in the solar system. It is found that quite different distributions result in different mass regimes, with implications for the origin and evolution of these particles: for example the larger bodies, observed as fireballs, are associated with meteorites in coming from the region of the asteroid belt with low-inclination orbits, whereas the smaller meteoroids have more comet-like orbits. There is also evidence for several meteoroid streams associated with specific Apollo asteroids. The data may additionally be viewed as a suitable source function in investigations of the production of interplanetary dust from the fragmentation of larger meteoroids in mutual collisions. However, inspection of the data raises many questions: for instance there seem to be many meteoroids on small retrograde paths, but no possible parent objects are known to exist on such orbits.

Type
Meteoroids and Meteor Streams
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 126: Origin and Evolution of Interplanetary Dust , 1991 , pp. 291 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1991

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