Issue |
A&A
Volume 683, March 2024
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A5 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
Section | Planets and planetary systems | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202348618 | |
Published online | 28 February 2024 |
Properties, age, and origin of a huge meteor cluster observed over Scandinavia on 30 October 2022
1
Astronomical Institute, CAS, Fričova 298, 25165 Ondřejov, Czech Republic
e-mail: e-mail: pavel.koten@asu.cas.cz
2
Norwegian Meteor Network, Jerpefaret 11E, 0788 Oslo, Norway
3
AllSky7 Global Network, Gerting Road, 21111 Monkton, USA
Received:
15
November
2023
Accepted:
21
December
2023
Context. A meteor outburst consisting of at least 22 meteors above the Baltic sea and southern Scandinavia that occurred on 30 October 2022 was recorded using multiple cameras. A bright fireball was followed by fainter meteors over a 10 second period. All the meteors were travelling on parallel trajectories.
Aims. The goal of this study is to determine the atmospheric trajectories and photometric masses of meteors and to use these data to determine the specifics of the progenitor meteoroid break-up and cluster formation.
Methods. Double and triple-station observations using video cameras were used for the calculation of the atmospheric trajectories and photometric masses of the meteors. Their relative positions and mass distribution were then used to determine the time and cause of the meteoroid fragmentation.
Results. The relative position of the cluster particles in the atmosphere and the distribution of their masses best correspond to the separation of the smaller fragments from the mass-dominant fragment 10.6 ± 1.7 days before the collision with Earth, assuming a meteoroid bulk density of 1000 kg m−3. The ejection velocities are in the range 0.16–0.61 ms−1. The directions of the ejection velocities are bounded by a cone with an apex angle of 43°. The axis of this cone has ecliptic coordinates of l = 154° and b = 26° and is 66° away from the direction to the Sun. Thermal stresses appear to be the most likely cause of such meteor cluster formation.
Key words: meteorites / meteors / meteoroids
© The Authors 2024
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This article is published in open access under the Subscribe to Open model. Subscribe to A&A to support open access publication.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.