The Polish Fireball Network (PFN) has observed enhanced activity of Southern Taurid meteor shower in 2005 and 2015. In 2005, between October 20 and November 10, seven stations of PFN determined 107 accurate orbits with 37 of them belonging to the Southern Taurid shower. In the same period of 2015, 25 stations of PFN, recorded 719 accurate orbits with 215 orbits of Southern Taurids. Both maxima were rich in fireballs which accounted to 17% of all observed Taurids.
Orbital parameters of observed Southern Taurids were compared to orbital elements of Near Earth Objects (NEO) from NEODYS-2 database. Using Drummond criterion D' with threshold as low as 0.06, we found over 100 fireballs traveling along the orbits strikingly similar to the orbit of 2015 TX24 asteroid. Several dozens of Southern Taurids have orbits similar to three other asteroids, namely: 2005 TF50, 2005 UR and 2010 TU149. All mentioned NEOs have orbital periods very close to the 7:2 resonance with Jupiter's orbit. It confirms David Asher's theory of a "resonant meteoroid swarm" within the Taurid Complex that predicts that in specific years, the Earth is hit by a greater number of meteoroids capable of producing fireballs.
Results are presented in: "Enhanced activity of the Southern Taurids in 2005 and 2015". The first author of this paper is Arkadiusz Olech from the Copernicus Astronomical Center in Warsaw.
Bright Taurid fireballs observed in 2015. Phot. Polish Fireball Network. Text: Arkadiusz Olech.
