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(meteorobs) Phaeton directly imaged or spectrographed?
I admin a list called 'meteorobs', devoted to meteor observing.
It's often noted that meteors from the well-known meteor showers have NEVER
been known to produce a meteorite: this is because they're composed of cometary
material, mostly less dense than water (0.7 g/cm2 or so).
However, there is ONE very active meteor shower which actually has what may be
an asteroid (or dead comet?) as a parent: the Geminids are now associated with
sun-grazer 3200 Phaeton. The point was made that, regardless what exactly
Phaeton was, this might make it theoretically possible for the Geminids to drop
fireballs... (And in fact there are those - maybe on the fringe of planetary
science - who suggest Phaeton may be the source of the suspected meteorite fall
in Greenland last December 9.)
Then a really *intriguing* question came up: have Phaeton's size or composition
ever been directly measured? This would provide valuable clues on the Geminids!
This seems far-fetched, considering Phaeton's faintness and inferior position
to us. But after a *great* talk by Bob Donahue of Mt. Wilson Observatory at our
last local NSAAC club meeting, touching on both visual interferometry and
extreme high-resolution imaging with Adaptive Optics, it occurred to me this
just MIGHT be possible... :)
Clear skies,
Lew Gramer