(meteorobs) meteor showers at Mercury

[Steven Kolins]

The published paper on this is at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103514006745

Other questions beyond my skill to answer but I can wonder about are:

- It points out a variation on sporadic meteor impacts (vs the shower from Comet Encke) varying "seasonally" because of orbital intersection with a interplanetary dust disk. I wonder if this accounts for the seasonal variation at Earth. They extend the question of the timing of the Encke meteoroid  impactors in comparison to Earth's interaction suggesting the comet orbit changed or meteoroids being driven or spread out. Another paper the first uses is at http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0204111v1.pdf but it doesn't speak to seasonal variation at Earth - just that there are asymmetries in the zodiac light that is the disk that might be caused by the giant planets but not when the rate of sporadics might more be visible at Earth.

- Where are the other meteor showers - surely closer to the sun the various perihelions of meteor shower streams must sometimes also fall within the orbit of Mercury and also be close to the ecliptic. Though Mercury would be a small target of course it's orbit also moves around. No other meteor showers? Really?



=    -   -  - - -  -   -    =
Steven Kolins
mailto:smkolins at mac.com
http://smk99.blogspot.com/
Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart!

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