Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-l4ctd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-25T19:02:02.989Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Dynamics of Meteoroid Streams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2017

I. P. Wiliams*
Affiliation:
Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Mile End Rd, London, E1 4NS

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Meteor showers are seen at regular and frequent intervals on Earth. They are caused by meteoroids (that is small dust grains) in a coherent stream, all moving on similar heliocentric orbits, burning up on encountering the atmosphere of the Earth. Such streams contain 1012 or more meteoroids, with the mass of the visible meteoroids ranging up to about 1 g. The main evolutionary effect on such streams is gravitational perturbations by the planets. Though grain-grain collision may be catastrophic for the two grains involved, it has no effect on the remainder of the stream, other than the fact that there are now two less grains in it. Solar radiation has some effect, but this can be included in the equations of motion. Because of the large numbers of particles involved, meteoroid streams represent a laboratory where many of our dynamical concepts can be tested.

At a basic level, meteoroid streams represent a collective dynamical phenomenon in which all members display roughly the same behavior. One of the fundamental questions which can be investigated is whether the behavior of the mean orbit of the whole stream represents the mean behavior of the stream members. Within the boundaries of some meteor streams lie regions where the orbits are in high order resonance with Jupiter. This also represents a phenomenon of interest. Finally, the possibility exists that some streams are in chaotic regions and it is interesting to investigate whether or not meteoroids in such regions do display chaotic behavior.

Type
Part VI - Meteors. Zodiacal Cloud. Nebulae
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1992 

References

Adams, J. C., (1867) Mon. Not. R. ast. Soc. 27, 247 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Babadzhanov, P. D. and Obrubov, Y.Y., (1980) in Solid Particles in the Solar System , Eds. Halliday, I. and McIntosh, B.A., D. Reidel Pub. Co., 157.Google Scholar
Babadzhanov, P. D. and Obrubov, Y. Y., (1983) Highlights in Astronomy , vol. 6, Ed. West, R. M., D. Reidel Pub Co., 411.Google Scholar
Babadzhanov, P. D., Zidian, Wu, Williams, I. P. and Hughes, D. W., (1991) Mon. Not. R. ast. Soc. (in Press) Google Scholar
Baines, M. J., Williams, I. P. and Asebiomo, A. S., (1965) Mon. Not. R. ast. Soc. 130, 63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benzenberg, J. F. and Brandes, H. W., (1800) Annalen der Phys. 6, 224.Google Scholar
Biela, W. von, (1826) Astronomische Nachrichten 4, 443.Google Scholar
Bosler, J. and Roure, H., (1937) Journal des Observateurs 20, 105.Google Scholar
Brouwer, D., (1947), Astron. J. 52, 190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brouwer, D. and Clemence, G. M., (1961). Methods of Celestial Mechanics , Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Chlandi, E. F. F., (1794) Ueber den ursprung der von Pallas gefunden und anderen ahnlichen eisenmassen J. F. Hartnock, Riga.Google Scholar
Clausen, T., (1826) Astronomische Nachrichten 4, 465.Google Scholar
Cook, A. F., (1973) Evolutionary and Physical Properties of Meteoroids , NASA SP-319, p.283.Google Scholar
Dahlgren, M., Fitzsimmons, A., Lagerkvist, C.-I. and Williams, I. P., (1991) Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 250, 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dormand, J. R. and Prince, P. J., (1978). Celestial Mechanics 18, 223 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dormand, J. R., El-Mikkai, M. E. A. and Prince, P. J., (1987) J. Numer. Anal. 7, 423.Google Scholar
Fox, K. and Williams, I. P., (1985) Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 217, 407.Google Scholar
Fox, K., Williams, I. P. and Hughes, D. W., (1982) Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 200, 313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, K., Williams, I. P. and Hughes, D. W., (1983) Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 205, 1155.Google Scholar
Froeschlé, Cl. and Scholl, H., (1985) Asteroids Comets Meteors II , Ed Lagerkvist, C.-I., Lindblad, B. A., Lundstedt, H. and Rickman, H., Uppsala Univ. Reprocentralen.Google Scholar
Gampart, J. F. A., (1826) Astronomische Nachrichten 4, 469.Google Scholar
Gustafson, B. A. S., (1989a) Astrophys. J. 337, 945.Google Scholar
Gustafson, B. A. S., (1989b) Astron. Astrophys. 225, 533.Google Scholar
Hamid, S. E. and Youssef, M. N., (1963) Smithson. Cont. Astrophys. 7, 309.Google Scholar
Hagihara, Y., (1972) Celestial Mechanics vol 2. MIT, Cambridge, USA.Google Scholar
Halley, E., (1714), Phil. Trans. of R. Soc. 29, 159.Google Scholar
Herrick, E. C., (1838) American J. Science 33, 176.Google Scholar
Herrick, E. C. and Bradley, F., (1846) American J. of Sci. and Arts 1, 293.Google Scholar
Hughes, D. W., Williams, I. P. and Murray, C. D., (1979) Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 189, 493.Google Scholar
Hughes, D. W., Williams, I. P. and Fox, K., (1981) Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 195, 625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, J., Williams, I. P. and Fox, K., (1985) Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 217, 533.Google Scholar
Hunt, J., Fox, K. and Williams, I. P., (1986). Asteroids Comets Meteors II , Ed. Lagerkvist, C.-I., Lindblad, B. A. Lundstedt, H. and Rickman, H., Uppsala Univ. Reprocentralen, 559 Google Scholar
Jones, J., (1985). Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 217, 523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, J. and Hawkes, R., (1986) Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 223, 479.Google Scholar
Jones, J. and McIntosh, B. A., (1986) Exploration of Comet Halley, ESA SP-250, 233.Google Scholar
Khabaza, I. M., (1969). Numerical Analysis , Pergamon Press, London.Google Scholar
Kresak, L., (1974) Bull. astr. Inst. Csl. 13, 176.Google Scholar
Le Verrier, U. J. J., (1867) Comptes Rendus 64, 94.Google Scholar
Levin, B. Y., Simonenko, A. N. and Sherbaum, L. M., (1972) in The Motion, Evolution of Orbits and Origin of Comets , Eds. Chebotarev, G. A. et al., D. Reidel Pub. Co., 454.Google Scholar
Lindblad, B. A., (1989) Asteroids Comets Meteors III , Ed Lagerkvist, C.-I., Rickman, H., Lindblad, B. A. and Lindgren, M., Uppsala Univ. Reprocentralen, 551.Google Scholar
Locke, J., (1834) Cincinati Daily Gazette , Aug. 11 and 12.Google Scholar
McDonnell, J. A. M., Alexander, W. M., Burton, W. M., Bussoleti, E., Evans, G. C., Evans, S. T., Firth, J. G., Grard, R. J. L., Green, S. F., Grun, E., Hanner, M.S., Hughes, D. W., Igenberg, E., Kissel, J., Kuczera, H., Lindblad, B. A., Langevin, Y., Mandeville, J. C., Nappo, S., Pankiewicz, G. S. A., Perry, C. H., Schwehm, G. H., Sekanina, Z., Stevenson, T. J., Turner, R. F., Weishaupt, U., Wallis, M. K. and Zarnecki, J. C., (1987) Astron. Astrophys 187, 719.Google Scholar
Maury, M. F., (1846) Washington Observations 2, 422.Google Scholar
Newton, H. A., (1863) American J. of Sci. and Arts 36, 145.Google Scholar
Newton, H. A., (1864) American J. of Sci. and Arts 37, 377.Google Scholar
Newton, H. A., (1865) American J. of Sci. and Arts 39, 193.Google Scholar
Olmstead, D., (1834) American J. of Science 29, 376 Google Scholar
Olsson-Steel, D., (1989) Asteroids Comets Meteors III , Ed Lagerkvist, C.-I., Rickman, H., Lindblad, B. A. and Lindgren, M., Uppsala Univ. Reprocentralen, 159 Google Scholar
Plavec, M., (1950). Nature 165, 362.Google Scholar
Santini, G., (1844) Astronomische Nachrichten 21 171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiaparelli, G. V., (1867) Astronomische Nachrichten 68, 331.Google Scholar
Sherbaum, L. M., (1970) Vestun. Kiev Un-ta. Ser. Astron. 12, 42 Google Scholar
Stoney, G. J. and Downing, A. M. W., (1899) Astronomische Nachrichten 149, 33.Google Scholar
Pringle, J., (1759) Phil. Trans. of R. Soc. 51, 259.Google Scholar
Rittenhouse, D., (1786), Trans. American Phil. Soc. 2, 173.Google Scholar
Twining, A. C., (1834) American Jl. Sciences 26, 320.Google Scholar
Weiss, E., (1868) Astronomische Nachrichten 72, 81.Google Scholar
Whipple, F. L., (1950). Astrophys. J. 111, 375.Google Scholar
Whipple, F. L., (1951). Astrophys. J. 113, 464.Google Scholar
Whipple, F. L., (1987). Astron. Astrophys. 187, 852.Google Scholar
Whipple, F. L. and Hamid, S. E. D., (1950), Sky and Telescope 9, 248.Google Scholar
Williams, I. P., Johnson, C. and Fox, K., (1986). Asteroids Comets Meteors II , Eds. Lagerkvist, C.-I., Lindblad, B. A. Lundstedt, H. and Rickman, H., Uppsala Univ. Reprocentralen, 559.Google Scholar
Williams, I. P., Murray, C. D. and Hughes, D. W., (1979) Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 189, 483.Google Scholar
Yeomans, D. K., (1991) Comets: a Chronological History of Observations, Science, Myth and Folklore , Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar