Interstellar Meteoroids
Abstract
The conclusive detection of interstellar meteoroids would be of great significance, providing unique information about the interstellar medium and even about the debris disks of other stars. However, owing to the limitations of the accuracy of current meteor measurements, identifying interstellar meteors is very challenging, and as yet there is no irrefutable evidence of their detection, unlike the in situ detection of interstellar dust particles passing through the solar system. To distinguish particles of interstellar origin from local meteoroids also requires proper accounting for errors and an analysis of whether an orbit's hyperbolicity can be produced in the solar system. The scientific results of studies related to this subject, based on various surveys for interstellar dust and meteors from both Earth-based and Space-borne observations, are reviewed. The flux of interstellar particles is summarized as determined from dust particles measured by in situ detectors, through meteoroids acquired from radar and optical surveys, up to an estimation of the hypothetical flux of interstellar fireballs based on the single detected macroscopic interstellar object 1I/'Oumuamua.
- Publication:
-
Meteoroids: Sources of Meteors on Earth and Beyond
- Pub Date:
- October 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019msme.book..235H
- Keywords:
-
- meteors - hyperbolic;
- meteoroids - interstellar;
- meteoroid orbits;
- hyperbolic excess;
- high speed meteors;
- meteoroid flux;
- mass distribution;
- dust particles;
- interstellar dust;
- 1I/`Oumuamua