Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Nov 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000m%26ps...35.1259c&link_type=abstract
Meteoritics & Planetary Science, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 1259-1267 (2000).
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
24
Scientific paper
Two station electro-optical observations of the 1998 Leonid shower are presented. Precise heights and light curves were obtained for 79 Leonids which ranged in brightness (at maximum luminosity) from +0.3 to +6.1 astronomical magnitude. The mean photometric mass of the data sample was 1.4x10-6 kg. The dependence of astronomical magnitude at peak luminosity on photometric mass and zenith angle was consistent with earlier studies of faint sporadic meteors. For example, a Leonid meteoroid with a photometric mass of about 1.0x10-7 kg corresponds to a peak meteor luminosity of about +4.5 astronomical magnitudes. The mean beginning height of the Leonid meteors in this sample was 112.6 km and the mean ending height was 95.3 km. The highest beginning height observed was 144.3 km. There is relatively little dependence of either the first or last heights on mass, which is indicative of meteoroids which have clustered into constituent grains prior to the onset of intensive grain ablation. The height distribution, combined with numerical modelling of the ablation of the meteoroids, suggests that silicate-like materials are not the principle component of Leonid meteoroids, and hints at the presence of a more volatile component. Light curves of many Leonids were examined for evidence of the physical structure of the associated meteoroids: like the 1997 Leonids, the narrow, nearly symmetric curves imply that the meteoroids are not solid objects. The light curves are consistent with a dustball structure.
Brown Peter G.
Campbell Margaret D.
Correll Randall
Hawkes Robert L.
Jones Jason J.
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