Deciphering Jupiter Family Comets at the Meter-Scale
Abstract
The Desert Fireball Network (DFN) is the largest single fireball observation network in the world, with over 50 observatories covering 2.5 million $km^{2}$ of the Australian outback. These observations of fireballs help us characterize debris in near-Earth space and unlock the origins of meteorites. Nearly all of the world's collections of meteorites ($\sim 60,000$ meteorites) lack an associated orbit. Using this information, we can better understand how the material is distributed in the Solar System. This is critical for interpreting how the Solar System has evolved over time, along with practical purposes like impact hazard mitigation and future space exploration. Observations of fireballs originating from Jupiter-family comet (JFC) orbits have presented to be particularly interesting. Based on the telescopic observations of the largest size-fractions of JFCs, there should be a scarcity of JFCs at the smaller size ranges likely due to the suspected short physical lifetimes. However, there have been several large, robust meteoroids observed to impact the atmosphere from JFC-like orbits by the DFN and other networks along with multiple ordinary chondrites recovered. Thus, the story behind these objects is still unclear. Utilizing DFN data, we have attempted to elucidate the mysteries that exist for JFC-like meteoroids.
- Publication:
-
43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly. Held 28 January - 4 February
- Pub Date:
- January 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021cosp...43E.290S