Asteroid (3200) Phaethon and the Geminid meteoroid stream complex

Abstract

The Geminid meteoroid stream and asteroid (3200) Phaethon are generally recognized as being associated. It has been claimed that two other asteroids, namely (225416) 1999 YC and (155140) 2005 UD, might be the members of this complex. We aim to study this possibility, with the assumption that their separation happened within the last several thousand years. The stability of the orbits of the asteroids over the last 5000 yr was studied. The fragmentation was modelled assuming that the separation speed of the fragments was either 100 m s−1 or 1 km s−1. Their orbits were integrated numerically till the present time. By analysing the orbital similarity and minimum orbit intersection distance, it is found that neither (225416) 1999 YC nor (155140) 2005 UD are members of the Phaethon-Geminid complex.