Abstract
The calculation of theoretical meteor radiants is discussed for comets and asteroids whose orbits pass within, but at present do not necessarily intersect, that of the Earth, in particular from the perspective of developing a suitable method for application to Taurid Complex orbits. The main question addressed here is how to allow for dynamical evolution between epochs when an orbit isnot Earth-intersecting (as at present in most cases for macroscopic bodies) and those when itis (i.e., when meteors can actually be observed). This should be understood in terms of evolution in the past, such that meteoroids released some time ago have evolved differentially from the putative parents, allowing meteors to be detected now. Theoretical radiants for macroscopic Taurid objects are then presented and compared with observations of the nighttime and daytime Taurid meteor showers. These are found to be broadly similar in form, given the sparsity of some of the data, adding weight to the hypothesis that this sub-jovian complex contains kilometre-plus asteroids. A similar conclusion results for the group of objects in similar orbits to (2212) Hephaistos.
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Asher, D.J., Steel, D.I. Theoretical meteor radiants for macroscopic Taurid Complex objects. Earth Moon Planet 68, 155–164 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00671504
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00671504