Related papers: Two Strengths of Ordinary Chondritic Meteoroids as…
The physical composition and structure of meteoroids gives us insight into the formation processes of their parent asteroids and comets. The strength of and fundamental grain sizes in meteoroids tell us about the environment in which small…
Meteoroids are pieces of asteroids and comets. They serve as unique probes to the physical and chemical properties of their parent bodies. We can derive some of these properties when meteoroids collide with the atmosphere of Earth and…
Geminids are the most active annual meteor shower observed on Earth. Their parent is an active asteroid, (3200) Phaethon, which is a target of the planned DESTINY+ mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The exact physical…
The origin of the Taurid complex is still debated. In addition to comet 2P/Encke, various asteroids were proposed to be members of the complex and thus possible parent bodies of Taurid meteoroids. Studies of physical properties of Taurid…
Small asteroids and large meteoroids frequently impact the Earth, though their physical and material properties remain poorly understood. When observed as fireballs in Earth's atmosphere, these properties can be inferred from their ablation…
Meteoroids impacting the Earth on a daily basis are fragments of asteroids and comets. By studying fireballs produced during their disintegration in the atmosphere, we can gain information about their source regions and the properties of…
Everyday thousands of meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere. The vast majority burn up harmlessly during the descent, but the larger objects survive, occasionally experiencing intense fragmentation events, and reach the ground. These…
Geminids have the highest bulk density of all major meteor showers and their mechanical strength appears to depend on their mass. They are also the most active annual shower, enabling detailed studies of the dependence of their physical and…
In recent years, nine small near-Earth asteroids were discovered a few hours before the collision with the Earth: these are about one meter in diameter objects that have all disintegrated in the atmosphere, generating bright fireballs…
It is known, from observational data recorded from airbursts, that small asteroids breakup at dynamical pressures lower than their mechanical strength. This means that actual theoretical models are inconsistent with observations. In this…
We have analysed the orbits and ablation characteristics in the atmosphere of 59 earth-impacting fireballs, produced by meteoroids one meter in diameter or larger, described here as meter-scale. Using heights at peak luminosity as a proxy…
Context. The mirror tracking system of the Canadian Automated Meteor Observatory (CAMO) can track meteors in real time, providing an effective angular resolution of 1 arc second and a temporal resolution of 100 frames per second. Aims. We…
On February 28, 2021, a fireball dropped $\sim0.6$ kg of recovered CM2 carbonaceous chondrite meteorites in South-West England near the town of Winchcombe. We reconstruct the fireball's atmospheric trajectory, light curve, fragmentation…
The reflectance of a particulate surface depends on the phase angle at which it is observed. This is true for laboratory measurements on powders of natural materials as well as remote observations of Solar System surfaces. Here, we measured…
Eta-Virginids is a less-known meteor shower active in March. We investigated the meteoroids of this shower using fireball data from the European Fireball Network supplemented by video data of faint meteors. We first derived the criteria for…
Models predict that more than half of all impacting meteoroids should be carbonaceous, reflecting the abundance of carbon-rich asteroids in the main belt and near-Earth space. Yet carbonaceous chondrites represent only about 4% of…
The cohesion of particles has a significant effect on the properties of small bodies. In this study, we measured in open air, the cohesive forces of tens of micron-sized irregularly shaped meteorite, silica sand, glass powder, and spherical…
High entry speed (> 25 km/s) and low density (< 2500 kg/m3) are two factors that lower the chance of a meteoroid to drop meteorites. The 26 g carbonaceous (CM2) meteorite Maribo recovered in Denmark in 2009 was delivered by a superbolide…
Climate change is inducing a global atmospheric contraction above the tropopause (~10 km), leading to systematic decrease in neutral air density. The impact of climate change on small meteoroids has already been observed over the last two…
The population of Earth-impacting meteoroids and its size-dependent orbital elements are key to understanding the origin of meteorites and informing on planetary defence efforts. Outstanding questions include the role of collisions in…