The velocity distribution of periodic comets and the meteor shower on Mars

¹ Purple Mountain Observatory, Academia Sinica, Nanjing 210008, PR China; National Astronomical Observatories, Academia Sinica, PR China
² Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary, London E1 4NS, UK
³ Institute of Astronomy, National Central University, Taiwan 32054, PR China

Corresponding author: Yuehua Ma, yhma@mail.pmo.ac.cn

Received: 10 September 2001
Accepted: 29 July 2002

Abstract

The collision velocities with Mars of the known periodic comets with perihelion distances less than the orbital radius of Mars 1.52 au are calculated and statistically analyzed. The velocity distribution shows that short-period comets usually have smaller collision velocities than the long-period comets whether they are numbered or unnumbered. For comets with period  y, most collision velocities with Mars are less than 30 km s^-1. These velocities are smaller than the corresponding collision velocities with Earth. Based on the similarity of the velocity distributions of the comets and meteoroid streams, meteor showers on Mars are discussed briefly.