The activity of the Lyrid meteor stream is in most years fairly low with a visual rate at maximum (21-22 April) of 5-10 meteors per hour. Short bursts of very high Lyrid activity, with visual hourly rates of 100 or more, have sometimes been reported. These observations generally refer to faint visual meteors. The reported bursts of high activity have occurred in a very narrow interval of solar longitudes (deg 31.24 to 31.38 equinox 1950.0), while the recurrent or 'normal' maximum for bright meteors occurs at solar longitude deg 31.6, or slightly later. A mass separation of the meteors in the shower is thus indicated

Lindblad, Bertil A.

Porubcan, V.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

o o
Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1991, pp. 367-370 "-') _ 7"- _
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, 1992 367
N937 9 oo
ACI'IVI'I_ OF THE LYRID METEOR STREAM !
B.A. Lindblad, Lund Observatory, Box 43, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden
V. Porubqan, Astron. Inst., Slovak Acad. of Sciences, 842 28 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
Abstract - The activity of the Lyrid meteor stream is in most years fairly low with a visual
rate at maximum (21-22 April) of 5-10 meteors per hour. Short bursts of very high Lyrid
activity, with visual hourly rates of 100 or more, have sometimes been reported. These
observations generally refer to faint visual meteors. The reported bursts of high activity have
occurred in a very narrow interval of solar longitudes (31.'24 to 31.'38 equinox 1950.0), while
the recurrent or "normal" maximum for bright meteors occurs at solar longitude 31.'6, or
slightly later. A mass separation of the meteors in the shower is thus indicated.
Introduction - The Lyrid meteor stream is associated with Comet Thatcher (1861 I). The
shower appears in the period 15-24 April with a maximum on April 21-22. An early
discussion in the scientific literature of a possible, annual meteor shower in mid-April is due
to Herrick (1838). For further references see Lindblad and Porubc_an (1991). The present
visual h.r. at maximum is low, about 5-10 meteors per hour. It is, however, known that the
Lyrid meteor stream in the past has given rise to intense meteoric displays. Less well known
is that short, intense outbursts of Lyrid activity have been observed on several occasions
during the 19th and 20th century. The present paper summarizes the historical records and
attempts to determine the precise solar longitude at which the Lyrid outbursts have occurred.
Unfortunately several records before 1900 could not be used since they do not give the
precise time - in some cases there is also an uncertainty as to the date of the display.
Observations - Table 1 summarizes those reports after 1800 for which precise date and time
information has been found. Table 1 shows that the Lyrid outbursts have occurred in a
narrow range of solar longitudes (31.'24 to 31"38). In some cases the activity maximum can
be specified to within 1 minute corresponding to approximately 0.*001 in solar longitude.
Owing to the rapid change in Lyrid rates near the peak, there is in some cases an uncertainty
as to the exact meaning of the published hourly rates. Most observers give an hourly rate
corresponding to the rate at peak activity. Rates listed in Table 1 are zenithal hourly rates for
a single observer, i.e. if group watches were made they were corrected to zenith and to rates
for one observer. A few comments on the data of Table 1 are given below.
Contemporary newspaper accounts of the 1803 Lyrid display were collected by Olmsted
(1834), Herrick (1839) - and a century later by Fisher (1931). Olmsted's report led Herrick
(1838) to suspect the existence of an annual meteoric display in April. Herrick's conclusions
were discussed by Benzenberg (1838) and other European astronomers. Subsequently Herrick
(1839) confirmed the existence of an April Lyrid shower by direct visual observations, and
determined a radiant at a = 273 °, 6 = 45*. The 1803 Lyrid display was evidently a meteoric
storm of length several hours and with an hourly rate of 670 or more.
For the 1922 and 1946 apparitions time information is available from two independent
sources. There is an apparent discrepency between the time of the 1922 maximum as
reported by Russel and Gadomski. We note that Russel's observations were accidental. On
April 21, 1922 he happened to observe an intense shower with a radiant near a Lyrae. Russel
counted meteors during three time intervals, with a break between 21:40 and 21:55 hrs local
time. Since Gadomski lists 21:40 as the time of shower maximum, it is evident that Russel's
observations were incomplete. There is thus no contradiction between the two reports.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19930010011 2020-03-17T07:29:31+00:00Z
368 Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1991
For the 1946 Skalnate Pleso observations Porub_an and Stohl (1983) list a zenithal hourly
rate corrected to a single observer of - 40. Inspection of the original records reveals that this
rate refers to 6 observers averaged over a 60 minute time interval. If the most experienced
observer (Mrkos) is selected and his h.r. is based on the 20 minute peak interval we deduce
an h.r. of 110 in good agreement with results reported from Prague.
The 1982 Lyrid apparition was observed both visually and by radar. It is therefore the best
studied display on record. Detailed information on the magnitude and/or mass distribution is
available. A predominance of faint meteors in the shower is evident from McLeod's visual
observations (Adams 1982). A peak zenithal rate of about 250 meteors per hour, persisting
for 15 minutes between half-maxfmfim values, was rep_y McLeod. He also reported for
the same period an observed mean Lyrid magnitude of 3.62 - to be compared with his
"normal" Lyrid mean magnitude of 2.84. A detailed studyofthe 1982 rad_ar observations has
been published by Porub_an and McIntosh (1987). They report a shower duration of 22
minutes between half-maximum points. In a subsequent paper Porubqan and Hajdukova
(1988) studied the most active part of the o_uAburst anddeterm_ined a mass index s = 2.2.
This value may be compared with the "normal" Lyrid value of s = 1.6. Again an excess of
small meteoroids in the 1982 Lyrid stream is indicated. ........
In conclusion we note that most observers state that the i922-82 Lyrid outbursts were of
short duration (total duration 2 hours or less and period of peak activity about 15 minutes)
and that they mainly consistedgffaint meteors.
NormM LyrMaetivity profile- For comparision purpo_s we derive the visual activity prof'de
of the recurrent or "normal" Lyrid meteor shower. This is difficult to determine because of
the very low number of Lyrids observed in most years. For our study we have used three data
sets: 1) Visual rates obtained by British and American observers in 1969 (Hindley 1969). 2)
Rates obtained by Dutch observers in 1984-88 (Jenniskens and Veltman 1988). 3) Rates
obtained in 1982-90 by the Arbeitskreis Meteore, Pdtsctam_RendteY1990). Hourly rate
curves for all three groups are plotted in Fig. 1A. All rates have been reduced by the original
authors to the zenithal hourly rate of a single observer. We note that the rates are very
consistent with peak rates of 14.0, 13.5 and 10.4 observed at solar longitudes 31.'5, 31".6 and
31..75 by Hindley, Jenniskens and Veltman, and Rendtel, respectively. Fig. 1B shows an
activity profile based on two series of long-term radar observations (Porub_an, Simek and
McIntosh 1989)_ - It is evident that radar and visual data are in good agreement and that both
types of data place the recurrent or "normal" Lyrid maximum at solar longitude 31..6
(equinox 1950.0).
Discussion. -It is evident that there exists a fdamentary structure in the Lyrid stream
consisting mainly of small particles. The Earth transits this filament in about one hour,
indicating a flux tube of transverse extension of about 100 000 km. Since the Lyrid outbursts
do not occur every year, there exists a longitudinal structure in the filament. The persistence
of such structures over long time periods is difficult to explain. Since the Earth encounters
this filament about 0.25 days earlier tha_n it encounters the=_main maxim_u m _gfthe stream a
mass separation in the stream is indicated. The filament could be due to small particles which
were ejected from the parent comet at a different time than the main Lyrid release. An
alternative explanation is to postulate the operation of some unknown mass dependent
dispersive mechanism (the Poynting-Robertson effect operates in the orbital plane of the
stream and is therefore not applicable).
Acknowledgements - The authors are indebted to J. Rendtel, Arbeitskreis Mete.ore, Potsdam,
for data on their Lyrid obsevation s a_ndto Dr. L. Kresak for valuable C_.mments. We wish to
thank the Swedish and Czechoslovak Academies of Sciences for exchange visits.
Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1991 369
Q'_ O" O" O" 0 ° O" 0. Oo O" O-
370 Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 1991
Fig. 1A
Visual zenithal hourly rates
of "normal" Lyrid shower
versus solar longitude 1950.
Observations by three
experienced groups.
Fig. 1B
Radar activity profile based
on 18 years of observations
at Ottawa and Ondrejov.
Hourly rate of radar echoes
normalized to 100.
i r I i
H - HINI_{.._
d - d_NISl_
lq - R[I_TG.
iIIJIItll
ZHR
14.
[2,
lI.
n,
If,
4
2
N
II
[]
[]
211
%
ill iiII ImmIIIIIIIIIi
• • i I
IIr
i i I
• • Ial •
2t 2_ 211 31 )2 -11 )4 I
References
Adams, M.T., 1982, Meteor News, No. 58, 1.
Benzenberg, J.F., 1838, Astron. Nachr. 355, 325-327.
Fisher, W.J., 1931, Pop. Astron., 39, 256-263.
Gadomski, J., 1929, Publ. Astron. Obs. Warzawa Univ., 5, 69.
Guth, V., 1947, Bull. Astron. Inst. Czechosl., 1, 1.
Herrick, E.C., 1838, Am. Journ. Sci., 34, 398.
Herdc-k, E.C., 1839, Am. Joum. Sc_, 36, 35_-363 ....
H_dley, K., 1969, Rep. Meteor Section, 36ui-h. BAA, 79, 475:
Jenniskens, P. and Vehman, R., 1988, de Radiant, Journ. Dutch Meteor Sot., No. 7, 74-75.
Lhotsky, O. and Gaertner, L., 1946, Rise Hvezd, 27, 137-138.
Lindblad, B.A. and Porubqan, V., 1991, Bull. Astron. Inst. Czechosl. (in press).
Olivier, C.P., 1929, Publ. Leander McCormick Obs., 5, I, 1-40.
Oiivier, CTP., 1946, Pop. Astron. 54, 3-05-307.
Olmstedt, D., 1834, Am. Journ. Sci. (1),-26, 132-137,-
Porubqan, V. and Stohl, J., 1983, Contr. Astron. Obs. Skalnat6 PIeso, 11, 169.
Porubqan, _V_a.nd Cevolani, G., 198_,, Contr. Astron. Obs. Skalnat6 Pleso, 13, 249.
Porubqan, V. and Mclntosh, B.A., 1987, Bull Astron. Inst., Czechoslov., 38, 313.
Porub_an, V. and Hajdukov_i, M., 1988, Acta Astron. et Geophys_Unlv. Comen., 13-14, 77.
Porubqan, V., Simek, M. and Mclntosh, B.A., 1989, Bull. Astron. Inst. Czechosl., 40, 298.
Rendtel, J., 1990, privatecommunication.
Teichgraeber, A., 1934, Die Sterne, 14, 137,


Activity of the Lyrid meteor stream

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

NASA Technical Reports Server