Can NEO passes cause meteor showers? Options

[monty python]

Hello from Dubuque, Iowa USA.

Last night at about midnight (sept 7 to 8 2010) I was walking my dog for about a quarter hour. As a space enthusiast I would occasionally look up - and I saw 5 bright meteors over a 15 min. period. I walk the dog every night at this time so I knew that this was way more than average.

The next day I was listening to a radio station from Illinois and a caller said he saw a similar thing from southern Illinois.

I have checked some web sites about meteors and they don't seem to reveal any great show at this time of year so I wonder........

Was the passage of 2 asteroids (210RX30 and 210RF12) past earth within a day of this observation a coincidence?

Should we be be out watching the sky when Apophis passes?

Brian

[AndyG]

Question #1: Did the bright meteors appear to come from a radiant?

(That'll help nail it.)

Andy

[algorimancer]

I would speculate that, if an asteroid had been subjected to a relatively recent impact, then a close pass could indeed be associated with a meteor shower. This is entirely analogous to passing through the orbit of a comet. It would make an interesting project to explore correlations between meteor counts and near passes by NEO's. I am not aware of any daily updated database, but this site may be worth checking in a few months to see whether there was a spike -- might even be worth check it for past NEO passes: http://www.imo.net/.

[monty python]

My guess for the radiant would be somewhere near cassiopeia , but a sample of 5 hardly nails it.

I've been out nights since and seen nothing like it.

It just seems to much to be a coincidence, but I know that it could be just that.

[algorimancer]

Here's a fairly current database from a radio meteor observing group. It is current through August, so it seems likely that the September data will show up in a few weeks. It lists counts from multiple sites on a daily basis.

http://www.rmob.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=4

[Antdoghalo]

It might be possible for the Earths magnetic charge and a slight tug from it and its moons gravity to dislodge some boulders from NEOs
Other than that i dont know what else could cause NEOs to breakup in the microgravity.

[nprev]

I've seen this behavior on occasion myself when no major meteor showers were active. Always interpreted them as fragments from a larger (though still pretty small) body that got busted up before hitting the Earth's atmosphere.

Doubt very much that this was associated in any way with the NEOs you cited. Guess you could technically call them NEO frags, but the entire "NEO" itself probably only massed a few grams at best.