Related papers: Meteor Showers on Earth from Sungrazing Comets

Bright fireballs or bolides are caused by meteoroids entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed. On 2013 February 15, a superbolide was observed in the skies near Chelyabinsk, Russia. Such a meteor could be the result of the decay of an…

The absolute magnitude and perihelion distributions of long-period comets are derived, using data from the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey. The results are surprising in three ways. Firstly, the flux of comets through…

Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner (hereafter, comet 21P/G-Z) is a Jupiter-family comet and a parent comet of the October Draconids meteor shower. If meteoroids originating from a Jupiter-family comet contain complex organic molecules, such as…

Periodic comets of different dynamical groups with orbits at 2 - 5 AU still occasionally active. The observed dust activity of such objects can be connected with processes of water ice sublimation (MBCs) or crystallization of amorphous…

Data on perihelion fragmentation of the Great September Comet of 1882 (C/1882 R1), a prominent member of the Kreutz sungrazer system, are employed to estimate the size of the nucleus along the radius vector at the time of splitting. The…

I present the results of the first comprehensive effort aimed at modeling a major component of the stream of SOHO sungrazers, 5000 of which have been detected by the onboard coronagraphs since 1996. The stream of Population I of the Kreutz…

The hydrogen emission from meteors is assumed to originate mainly from the meteoroid composition, making it a potential tracer of H$_{2}$O molecules and organic compounds. H$\alpha$ line was previously detected in individual fireballs, but…

We present H$_2$O production rates for comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) derived from observations of [OI] and OH emission during its inbound leg, covering a heliocentric distance range of 1.8-0.44 AU. Our production rates are in agreement with…

In 1985 Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner was the first comet visited by a spacecraft, the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) satellite, several months before the armada of Halley spacecraft had their encounters in 1986. ICE was originally the…

Main Belt Comets are a recently identified population of minor bodies with stable asteroid-like orbits but cometary appearances. Sublimation of water ice is the most likely mechanism for their recurrent activity (i.e. dust tails and dust…

We present the history of investigation of the dynamical properties of pairs and groups of genetically related long-period comets (other than the Kreutz sungrazing system). Members of a comet pair or group move in nearly identical orbits…

We present the results of our orbital computations in support of the recently proposed contact-binary model for the Kreutz sungrazer system (Sekanina 2021, 2022). We demonstrate that comet Ikeya-Seki (C/1965 S1) previously passed perihelion…

Orbital elements of C2011 L4 (PanStarrs) Oort cloud comet, computed by MPC (Minor Planet Center, Minor Planet Electronic Circular 2012-T08), show that the closest approach to the Sun occurred on 2013 March 10th, at about 0.3 A.U., then…

A sequence of events, dominated by two outbursts and ending with the preperihelion disintegration of comet C/2017 S3, is examined. The onset times of the outbursts are determined with high accuracy from the light curve of the nuclear…

We analyze the outburst experienced by the September $\varepsilon$-Perseid meteor shower on 9 September 2013. As a result of our monitoring the atmospheric trajectory of 60 multi-station events observed over Spain was obtained and accurate…

For much of February 2023, the world was in panic as repeated balloon-like unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were reported over numerous countries by governments that often responded with military action. As a result, most of these craft…

Extending the investigation of the presumed primordial comet as part of continuing work on a new model of the Kreutz sungrazer system, I confront a previously derived set of orbital elements with Aristotle's remarks in his Meteorologica to…

We describe the physical and orbital properties of C/2011 W3. After surviving perihelion, the comet underwent major changes (permanent loss of nuclear condensation, formation of spine tail). The process of disintegration culminated with an…

Since 1950 when Oort published his paper on the structure of the cloud of comets it is believed that stars passing near this hypothetical cometary reservoir play an important role in the dynamical evolution of long period comets and…

Observations of sungrazing comets can be used to probe the solar corona, to study the composition of the comets, and to investigate the plasma processes that govern the interaction between the coronal plasma and cometary gas. UVCS…