Meteor observations in Japan: new implications for a Taurid meteoroid swarm

Abstract

Observational evidence is sought that the long‐term (104 yr) action of a mean motion resonance with Jupiter can produce structure in a meteoroid stream, concentrating meteoroids in a dense swarm. More specifically, predictions tabulated by Asher & Clube of enhanced meteor and fireball activity from a Taurid Complex swarm in the 7:2 resonance are compared with observational data collected in Japan over several decades. The swarm model was proposed for reasons independent of the observations analysed here, and these newly considered data are shown to be consistent with it. This allows increased confidence in the Taurid swarm theory, and more generally could mean that resonant trapping is a dynamical mechanism affecting a significant amount of meteoroidal material in the inner Solar system.

Discovery of a new branch of the Taurid meteoroid stream as a real source of potentially hazardous bodies

“…Since the Earth does not encounter the new branch every year, it is evident that meteoroids of the new branch are not spread along the whole orbit. The model and observations of and Asher & Izumi (1998) suggest that the enhanced activity of Taurids is caused by a resonant swarm of meteoroids, which extends ±30-40…”

“…Asher & Izumi (1998) showed that enhanced Taurid activity indeed occurred in the years when the center of the swarm was less than 40…”

A cometary origin for martian atmospheric methane

“…In fact, larger particles are preferentially concentrated in the vicinity of comet orbits (Asher and Izumi, 1998;Dubietis and Arlt, 2007), as observed directly in dust trails (Sykes et al, 1986). Finally, larger masses tend to generate significant amounts of micrometre-sized "smoke" particles upon infall ( Klekociuk et al, 2005) that may be particularly conducive to generation of methane via UV photolysis due to their large amount of freshly-exposed surface area.…”

The meteoroid stream of comet Encke at Mercury: Implications for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging observations of the exosphere

“…One reason this assumption may not hold even for a dense stream is if grains are azimuthally confined along the orbit by mean motion resonances [ Asher et al , ]. For the Encke meteor stream, there is evidence that large ( centimeter‐sized) grains within the 7:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter lead to episodic outbursts of bright Taurid meteors at the Earth [ Asher and Clube , ; Asher and Izumi , ]. The annual repeatability of the feature seen in Mercury's exosphere [ Burger et al , ] suggests that if due to impact vaporization, such a population of resonant grains is not the culprit.…”