VOLANTID METEORS 2025-2026

Electronic Telegram No. 5653

VOLANTID METEORS 2025-2026

P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center; D. S. Lauretta, University of Arizona; J. Baggaley and J. Scott, Cameras for All-sky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS) low-light video survey, New Zealand; and H. A. R. Devillepoix and D. Rollinson, CAMS Australia, report that the Volantids meteor shower (IAU shower no. 758) was detected in the southern hemisphere during New Year's Eve 2025 (see map at website URL http://cams.seti.org/FDL/ for dates of 2025 Dec. 28-2026 Jan. 4). A total of 100 Volantid meteors were triangulated between solar longitudes 274 and 284 degrees, centered on a median solar longitude 279.82 +/- 0.11 degrees (equinox J2000.0). This episodic Jupiter- family-comet shower with geocentric radiant R.A. = 123 deg, Decl. = -72 deg and geocentric velocity 30 km/s around solar longitude 279 degress was previously detected around 2015 Dec. 31 and around 2020 Dec. 31. This year's return establishes a five-year periodicity, which suggests that these meteoroids are trapped in the 7:3 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter (period 5.08 years). The parent Jupiter family comet is not known, but likely has a semi-major axis near 2.96 AU, with approximate orbital elements q = 0.97 AU, e = 0.65, i = 51 deg, Peri. = 347 deg, Node = 99 deg, and longitude of perihelion close to 86 deg.

D. Vida, University of Western Ontario; D. Segon, Croatian Meteor Network; P. Roggemans, Mechelen, Belgium; J. Wood, Willetton, Australia; J. Scott, Aarhus University; and W. J. Cooke and A. Vriezelaar, NASA Meteoroid Environment Office, report an outburst of the kappa Volantid (KVO) meteor shower (IAU shower no. 787): 304 Volantid meteors were observed by the Global Meteor Network (GMN) low-light video cameras between 2025 Dec. 25 and 2026 Jan. 1 (cf. website URL https://globalmeteornetwork.org/data/). The shower was independently observed by cameras in five countries in the southern hemisphere (Australia, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, and South Africa). The GMN did not observe any KVO meteors in 2024 when it had sufficient coverage in the southern hemisphere and the weather was clear. The shower had a median geocentric radiant at R.A. = 125.35 deg, Decl. = -71.98 deg (equinox J2000.0), within a wide circle having a standard deviation of +/- 1.3 deg. The radiant drift in R.A. was 0.19 deg on the sky per degree of solar longitude and -0.98 degrees in Decl., both with reference to the sun at longitude 279.5 deg. The median sun-centered ecliptic coordinates were L-L0 = 300.00 deg, beta = -76.53 deg. The geocentric velocity was 30.30 +/- 0.05 km/s. The orbital elements are characteristic of a Jupiter-family comet: q = 0.9731 +/- 0.0046 AU, e = 0.630 +/- 0.043, i = 50.9 +/- 1.5 deg, Peri. = 347.6 +/- 3.5 deg, Node = 98.7 +/- 1.5 deg (equinox J2000.0). All meteors appeared during in the solar- longitude interval 273.6-281.0 degrees, with a peak at roughly 279.5 degrees. A plot of co-added GMN radiant locations for the month of Dec. 2025 (cf. URL https://tinyurl.com/mrxncxc9) shows a concentration of radiants near the bottom right of the plot, which is the KVO shower. A parent-body search with a "Drummond D" criterion (cf. Drummond 2000, Icarus 146, 453) returned several potential candidates, of which the top three are as follows: D = 0.116 for 2017 YN_3, D = 0.127 for 2022 WC_12, and D = 0.140 for 2022 BJ_3. The original discovery of the shower reported by Pokorny et al. (2017, Icarus 290, 162), based on radar data, suggested minor planet 2011 AL_1 as the parent body, but that object was not even in the top-ten closest objects by orbit in the present analysis. Vida adds that the two Volatid showers noted in this CBET may need merging into a single shower.

NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

(C) Copyright 2026 CBAT 2026 January 7 (CBET 5653) Daniel W. E. Green