The Dynamical Origin of Millimetre-Sized Sporadic Meteoroids

Abstract

Determining the relative contributions of cometary and asteroidal sources to the sporadic meteoroid population remains a longstanding challenge, particularly because commonly used orbit-based classification criteria have not been rigorously validated for meteoroids. We evaluate the efficacy of several established orbit-based criteria for meteoroid classification. These include the Whipple $K$-criterion, Kresák $Pe$-criterion, the Tisserand invariant with respect to Jupiter (T$_J$), and a recent classification based on aphelion distance proposed by Borovička. Our validations suggest that $K$ and $Pe$ are most reliable at recovering whether a meteoroid was released from a cometary or asteroidal parent. We applied these criteria to a suite of 386 observed millimetre-sized meteoroids to try to constrain their original source populations. Our analysis used the observed orbit co-variances to backward integrate a suite of clones for each meteoroid to statistically evaluate their dynamical origin. We find that if meteoroids are released in the last ~150-200 kyr, there is a dividing velocity of below 17 km/s where meteoroids in the millimetre to centimetre size range impacting Earth are predominantly asteroidal in origin, independent of the orbital criteria used. Above 17 km/s, the fraction of dynamically cometary meteoroids increases, although a definitively cometary dominated population does not arise until velocities of 27 km/s or higher. For ages older than 200 kyr, lower velocity meteoroids at Earth in the mm-sized range may be a mix of either cometary or asteroidal.