An observing campaign to search for meteoroids of Bennu at EarthOPEN ACCESS 

Peter Jenniskens, Dante S. Lauretta, Lindsey R. Koelbel, Martin C. Towner, Phil Bland, Steve Heathcote, Tim Abbott, Emmanuel Jehin, Toni Hanke, Elise Fahl, Rynault van Wyk, Tim Cooper, Jack W. Baggaley, Dave Samuels, Peter S. Gural

Icarus
Available online 16 December 2022

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“Highlights

• A search was conducted for possible meteors at Earth from debris ejected by asteroid Bennu in the past.
• New networks of low-light video cameras were established in the southern hemisphere to measure meteoroid orbits from the predicted radiant in late September.
• Only a handful of meteoroids in orbits similar to asteroid Bennu were detected, consistent with the low flux density expected form the present rate of meteoroid ejection.”

“An observing campaign was conducted in the Southern Hemisphere using low-light video camera triangulation to measure the trajectories and orbits of meteoroids with a possible origin at asteroid Bennu. New CAMS (Camera for Allsky Meteor Surveillance) video camera networks were established in Australia, Chile, and Namibia, and networks in New Zealand and South Africa were expanded. During observing periods in September 2019, 2020, and 2021, we measured 7672, 4936, and 5890 orbits, respectively. Based on the non-detection of predicted meteoroid trail encounters, Bennu’s meteoroid production rate was not >1.5 kg/s during 1500–1800 CE. Indeed, the current production rate is many orders of magnitude lower. Bennu may have an associated annual meteoroid stream of much older ejecta at a particle flux density of ≤1.3 × 10−6 km−2 h−1, based on seven Bennu-like orbits detected during the first three years of observations.”