Association between meteor showers and asteroids using multivariate criteria

¹ IMCCE, Paris Observatory, 77 avenue Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris Cedex, France
e-mail: bogdan.dumitru@obspm.fr
² Institute of Space Science (ISS), 409, Atomistilor Street, 077125 Magurele, Ilfov, Romania
³ Astronomical Institute of Romanian Academy, 5, Cutitul de Argint Street, 040557 Bucharest, Romania
⁴ Faculty of Physics, Bucharest University, 405, Atomistilor Street, 077125 Magurele, Ilfov, Romania

Received: 17 March 2017
Accepted: 22 July 2017

Abstract

Context. Meteoroid streams are fragments of matter produced by comets or asteroids which intersects the orbit of Earth. Meteor showers are produced when Earth intersects these streams of matter. The discoveries of active asteroids and extinct comets open a new view of the relation between these objects as possible parent bodies at the origin of meteor showers.

Aims. The aim of this work is to identify the asteroids that can produce or re-populate meteoroid streams by determining the similarity of their orbits and orbital evolution over 10 000 yr.

Methods. The identification was carried out by evaluating several well known D-criteria metrics, the orbits being taken from the IAU Meteor Data Center database and from IAU Minor Planet Center. Finally, we analyzed the physical properties and the orbital stability (in the Lyapunov time sense) of the candidates as well as their possible relationship with meteorites.

Results. 206 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) were associated as possible parent bodies with 28 meteor showers, according to at least two of the criterion used. 50 of them satisfied all the criteria. Notable finds are: binary asteroid 2000UG11 associated with Andromedids (AND), while the tumbling asteroid (4179)Toutatis could be associated with October Capricornids (OCC). Other possible good candidates are 2004TG10, 2008EY5, 2010CF55, 2010TU149 and 2014OY1. These objects have low albedo, therefore can be primitive objects. Asteroid 2007LW19 which is a fast rotator and most probably has monolithic structure and so its physical characteristic does not support the association found based on the dynamical criteria.