4 Conclusions

Investigation of the orbital evolution of Adonis shows that Adonis is a quadruple Earth-crosser and, therefore, its hypothetical meteoroid stream might produce four meteor showers observable from Earth in February and July. A search of the theoretically predicted radiants in the catalogs of observed meteor showers show that all these showers, namely, night-time $\sigma$-Capricornids and $\chi$-Sagittariids and day-time $\chi$-Capricornids and Capricornids-Sagittariids, are active at present. The existence of the meteor showers associated with Adonis provides evidence supporting the conjecture that this asteroid may be of a cometary nature.

On February 2, 1995, during the period of activity of the $\chi$-Capricornids meteor shower, the small near-Earth asteroid 1995 CS passed near the Earth at a distance of 0.014 AU. The predicted geocentric radiant position and velocity of the nearest point of the 1995 CS orbit nearly coincides with the predicted and observed geocentric radiant and velocity of the $\chi$-Capricornid meteor shower associated with Adonis. Probably, 1995 CS is a large fragment of Adonis, or both Adonis and 1995 CS, and the meteoroid stream producing four above-named showers, have a common origin, having detached from a large cometary body some tens of thousands of years ago.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express his gratitude to the referee Dr. G.B. Valsecchi for useful comments which improved the paper. The annotations by the English copy editor of the A&A are also appreciated.