An Earth-grazing fireball from the Daytime ζ-Perseid shower observed over Spain on 10 June 2012
José M. Madiedo, Francisco Espartero, Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, Sensi Pastor, José A. de los Reyes
Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) on 2016 April 28
“On 10 June 2012, an Earth-grazer meteor which lasted over 17 s with an absolute magnitude of -4.0 ± 0.5 was observed over Spain. This work focuses on the analysis of this rare event which is, to our knowledge, the faintest Earth-grazing meteor reported in the scientific literature, but also the first one belonging to a meteor shower. Thus, the orbital parameters show that the parent meteoroid belonged to the Daytime ζ-Perseid meteoroid stream. According to our calculations, the meteor was produced by a meteoroid with an initial mass ranging between 115 and 1.5 kg. During its encounter with Earth, the particle travelled about 510 km in the atmosphere. Around 260 g were destroyed in the atmosphere during the luminous phase of the event as a consequence of the ablation process. The modified orbit of the remaining material, which left our planet with a fusion crust, is also calculated. ”
