The established meteor showers as observed by CAMS

Abstract

Orbital elements are presented for 70 of the 95 meteor showers considered “established” by the International Astronomical Union. From 2010 October 21 until 2013 March 31, the low-light-video based Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance project (CAMS) measured a total of 110,367 meteoroid trajectories and pre-atmospheric orbits from mostly −2 to +4 magnitude meteors with a precision of <2° (median 0.4°) in apparent radiant direction and <10% (median 0.9%) in speed. This paper discusses how the already established showers manifest in this data. Newly resolved components in the radiant distribution shed light on the dynamics and physical lifetime of parent bodies and their meteoroids. Many multi-component showers have associated parent bodies with nodal lines not much rotated from that of their meteoroids (Encke Complex, Machholz Complex, Phaethon Complex, and now also the 169P/NEAT Complex). These may result from a parent body disruption cascade, with the disruption-generated meteoroids fading on the short timescale of a few hundred to a few thousand years. In particular, the Northern and Southern Taurids of the Encke Complex are decomposed here into 19 individual streams. Seven of these streams can be paired with mostly sub-km sized potential parent body asteroids that move in 2P/Encke-like orbits that span the narrow semi-major axis range of 2.20–2.35AU. The meteoroids in these Taurid streams do not survive long enough for the nodal line to fully rotate relative to that of their parent body.