Do meteoroids originating from near-earth asteroid (25143) itokawa exist?

Abstract

Making a survey of Itokawids, i.e., meteor(oid)s originating from Apollo-type near-Earth Asteroid (25143) Itokawa, from among the multiple-station optical meteor orbit data, and employing several orbital similarity criteria, we found five Itokawid candidates. Furthermore, we classified the Itokawid candidates in meteorite types according to their physical data. The physical analyses indicate that all of the candidates evidently belong to not cometary, but asteroidal, meteoroids. Especially, the fireball, MORP 172, is the one candidate that is classified among ordinary/ carbonaceous chondrites, as against the four other at carbonaceous chondrites. Hence, the classified meteoritic matter of MORP 172 shows more similarities to Itokawa's surface composition of an LL chondrite analogue than those of the other candidates. Therefore, the fireball is considered to be the strongest of the Itokawid candidates. © 2011. Astronomical Society of Japan.