Modeling of the origin of wide meteoroid shower produced by multi-stage parent comet disaster

Abstract

The meteor showers are believed to be connected to comets as parent bodies, but theoretical modeling shows that primitive evaporation of volatiles from comet nucleus by solar radiation can push away heavy refractory particles with low velocities only. It leads to theoretical radiants that are too narrow for observable ones. The real dimensions of meteor showers can not be explained even by long evolution of the stream's orbit due to gravitational perturbations of large planets. A scenario of multi-stage decay of parent comet is proposed. At the first stage comet is splitting into several comet-like fragments, which orbits change widely during close passages near the Earth. The resulting meteor shower has to be a superposition of a set of narrow meteor showers produced by disaster of individual fragments of the parent comet. Observable “parent” comets of old meteor showers must be considered as survived up today fragments of real parent comet. An absence of “parent comet” for meteor shower should be explained as result of its total decay and cannot give rise to search parent body among asteroids.

Keywords

• comets
• comet nuclei desintegration