Search for meteor showers associated with Near-Earth Asteroids

I. Taurid Complex

Institute of Astrophysics, Tajik Academy of Sciences, Dushanbe 734042, Tajikistan and Isaac Newton Institute of Chile, Tajikistan Branch

Received: 26 December 2000
Accepted: 20 March 2001

Abstract

Observed meteor showers associated with some Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) is one of the few criteria that such asteroids may be considered to be candidate extinct cometary nuclei. In order to reveal new NEA-meteor shower associations, we calculated the secular variations of the orbital elements of 17 Taurid Complex asteroids with allowance for perturbations from six planets (Mercury-Saturn) over one cycle of variation of perihelia arguments. The Earth-crossing class of these NEAs and theoretical geocentric radiants and velocities of their meteor showers were determined and compared with available observational data. It turns out that each Taurid Complex asteroid is associated with four meteor showers. This is evidence for the cometary origin of these asteroids.