Long-period comet C/1963 A1 (Ikeya), the probable parent body of π-Hydrids, δ-Corvids, November α-Sextantids, and ϑ-Leonids

Abstract

Aims. We study the meteoroid stream of the long-period comet C/1963 A1 (Ikeya) to predict the meteor showers originating in this comet. We also aim to identify the predicted showers with their real counterparts. Methods. We modeled 23 parts of a theoretical meteoroid stream of the parent comet considered. Each of our models is characterized by a single value of the evolutionary time and a single value of the strength of the Poynting–Robertson effect. The evolutionary time is defined as the time before the present when the stream is modeled and when we start to follow its dynamical evolution. This period ranges from 10 000 to 80 000 yr. In each model, we considered a stream consisting of 10 000 test particles that dynamically evolve, and their dynamics is followed via a numerical integration up to the present. At the end of the integration, we analyzed the mean orbital characteristics of particles in the orbits approaching Earth’s orbit, which thus enabled us to predict a shower related to the parent comet. We attempted to identify each predicted shower with a shower recorded in the International Astronomical Union Meteor Data Center list of all showers. In addition, we tried to separate, often successfully, a real counterpart of each predicted shower from the databases of real meteors. Results. Many modeled parts of the stream of comet C/1963 A1 are identified with the corresponding real showers in three video-meteor databases. No real counterpart is found in the IAU MDC photographic or radio-meteor data. Specifically, we predict five showers related to C/1963 A1. Two predicted showers are identified with π-Hydrids #101 and δ-Corvids #729. The third predicted shower is only vaguely similar to November α-Sextantids #483, when its mean orbit is compared with the mean orbit of the November α-Sextantids in the IAU MDC list of all showers. However, the prediction is very consistent with the corresponding showers newly separated from three video databases. Another predicted shower has no counterpart in the IAU MDC list, but there is a good match of the prediction and a shower that we separated from the Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance video data. We name this new shower ϑ-Leonids. The last of the predicted showers should be relatively low in number and, hence, no real counterparts were either found in the IAU MDC list or separated from any considered database.