Meteor showers of comet C/1964 N1 (Ikeya)

Abstract

Aims. We intend to map the meteor complex of the long-period comet C/1964 N1 (Ikeya), which is a proposed parent body of the July ξ-Arietids, the meteor shower 533 in the IAU MDC list. Methods. For five perihelion passages of the parent comet in the past, we modeled the associated theoretical stream, its parts, consisting of 10 000 test particles each, and followed the dynamical evolution of these parts up to the present. We performed several simulations of the evolution, with various strengths of the Poynting–Robertson effect. At the end of each simulation, we analyzed the mean orbital characteristics of the particles that approached Earth orbit and thus created one or several showers. The showers were compared with their observed counterparts as separated from photographic and several video databases when the separation was successful. Results. The modeled stream of C/1964 N1 typically approaches Earth orbit in four filaments that correspond to four showers. Their radiant areas are close to the apex of Earth’s motion around the Sun. We confirm the generic relationship between the studied parent comet and the July ξ-Arietids. The comet also seems to be the parent of the ϵ-Geminids, shower 23, and we suspect a relationship between the comet and the ξ-Geminids, shower 718, although the relationship is rather uncertain. The real counterparts of three of the predicted showers were selected in the CAMS and SonotaCo databases. However, these real showers are diffuse, with relatively few members, and determination of their characteristics is therefore uncertain; the showers were separated into more than one single “modification”. Confirmation of their existence will have to await considerably more numerous data.