Evidence for the existence of groups of meteorite‐producing asteroidal fragments

• Published in: Meteoritics
• Main Authors: Halliday, Ian, Blackwell, Alan T., Griffin, Arthur A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1990
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1945-5100.1990.tb00981.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1945-5100.1990.tb00981.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1945-5100.1990.tb00981.x

Abstract— The MORP camera network in western Canada observed 56 events which we associate with meteorites larger than 0.1 kg. An additional 33 Prairie Network (central USA) fireballs with published orbits were previously identified as the sources of meteorites of at least 0.25 kg. A comparison of the MORP orbits with each other and with the PN orbits, using the D′ criterion of orbital similarity, exhibits a surprising number of small values. This suggests there are groups of related objects among the 89 events. We evaluate the probability of small values of D′ arising by chance from a group of random orbits that has the distribution of orbital elements expected for meteorites. There is an excess of small values of D′ among the 89 meteoritic objects over the expectation for random orbits and a marked excess of very small values. Four groups comprising a total of 16 objects account for this excess. These groups exhibit a preference for the larger masses of the population and a very strong concentration of perihelia just slightly inside the Earth's orbit. Although it has been shown by others that gravitational perturbations will disperse Earth‐crossing streams in times that are much less than cosmic‐ray exposure ages, the properties of the four groups suggest they may be streams of fragments that crossed the Earth's orbit only recently. Such streams may include a considerable fraction of meteorites falling at a given time. Orbital evolution of these streams could alter the sample of meteorites arriving on Earth over time intervals that are less than the accumulation time of the Antarctic collections.