39. On the grouping of meteors in meteor streams

Extract

It has been repeatedly suggested, on the basis of visual and radar observations, that meteors often appear in pairs or larger groups, within short time intervals. They usually have some similar characteristics (brightness, path, etc.) so they easily attract the observer's attention. This phenomenon could be a result of chance and only an analysis of its frequency can give an answer whether there is any a priori reason for it. The possible reality of this grouping has been studied by some authors. However, their observing data contained only meteors brighter than +8^m, and did not yield unambiguously acceptable evidence for existence of real pairs in this range and said nothing about the region of very small meteors.