Halo Meteors. (arXiv:1906.05291v1 [astro-ph.EP])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Siraj_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Amir Siraj</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Loeb_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Abraham Loeb</a>
The stellar halo contains some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way galaxy
and in the universe. The detections of `Oumuamua, CNEOS 2014-01-08, and
interstellar dust serve to calibrate the production rate of interstellar
objects. We study the feasibility of a search for interstellar meteors with
origins in the stellar halo. We find the mean heliocentric impact speed for
halo meteors to be $sim 270 mathrm{;km;s^{-1}}$, and the standard deviation
is $sim 90 mathrm{;km;s^{-1}}$, making the population kinematically
distinct from all other meteors, which are an order-of-magnitude slower. We
explore the expected abundance of halo meteors, finding that a network of
all-sky cameras covering all land on Earth can take spectra and determine the
orbits of a few hundred halo meteors larger than a few mm per year. The
compositions of halo meteors would provide information on the characteristics
of planetary system formation for the oldest stars. In addition, one could
place tight constraints on baryonic dark matter objects of low masses.
The stellar halo contains some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way galaxy
and in the universe. The detections of `Oumuamua, CNEOS 2014-01-08, and
interstellar dust serve to calibrate the production rate of interstellar
objects. We study the feasibility of a search for interstellar meteors with
origins in the stellar halo. We find the mean heliocentric impact speed for
halo meteors to be $sim 270 mathrm{;km;s^{-1}}$, and the standard deviation
is $sim 90 mathrm{;km;s^{-1}}$, making the population kinematically
distinct from all other meteors, which are an order-of-magnitude slower. We
explore the expected abundance of halo meteors, finding that a network of
all-sky cameras covering all land on Earth can take spectra and determine the
orbits of a few hundred halo meteors larger than a few mm per year. The
compositions of halo meteors would provide information on the characteristics
of planetary system formation for the oldest stars. In addition, one could
place tight constraints on baryonic dark matter objects of low masses.
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