The mass of meteoroid streams

Abstract

The paper reviews the method used for calculating the mass of a meteoroid stream and presents typical results for some of the major meteoroid streams encountered by the earth. For example, the masses of the streams responsible for the Quadrantid, Perseid, Orionid/Eta Aquarid, and Geminid meteor showers are found to be 1.3 x 10 to the 15th, 3.1 x 10 to the 17th, 3.3 x 10 to the 16th, and 1.6 x 10 to the 16th g, respectively. These masses are compared with the estimated masses of typical short-period comets.