Identifying the progenitor bodies of meteoritesBackward integration of NEO and FJC comets

Resumen

A continuous monitoring of fireball activity all over Spain is being completed. This involves recording meteor events over a very large surface area of 500,000 km2 with new CCD and video cameras operated by the Spanish Meteor and Fireball Network (SPMN). Through the use of these new techniques the SPMN can obtain trajectory and orbital information that provide new clues regarding the dynamical processes that deliver meteorites to the Earth. It transpires that the main asteroid belt is not the only source of these fireballs, Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and Jupiter Family Comets (JFCs) play also a role. To obtain more information in this regard, we are developing new software to compare the orbits of large meteoroids reaching the Earth with those of the members of NEO and JFC populations. By numerically integrating their orbits back in time it may be possible to identify meteoroids delivered by other mechanisms like such as catastrophic disruptions or collisions.