An Earth-grazing fireball from the Daytime $\zeta$-Perseid shower observed over Spain on 10 June 2012

TL;DR

This paper reports the analysis of a rare, faint Earth-grazing meteor from the Daytime ζ-Perseid shower, observed over Spain in 2012, providing detailed orbital and physical characteristics of the event.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed analysis of a faint Earth-grazing meteor associated with a meteor shower, including orbital parameters and physical properties.

Findings

Meteor lasted over 17 seconds and traveled 510 km in the atmosphere.

Initial meteoroid mass estimated between 115 and 1.5 kg.

Approximately 260 g of material was ablated during the event.

Abstract

On 10 June 2012, an Earth-grazer meteor which lasted over 17 s with an absolute magnitude of -4.0 $\pm$ 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 $\zeta$-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.