Astronomers of the Russian Federation and the United States received new data on the stream of heminid

New data on one of the most powerful meteoroid flows – heminids received a scientist of Tomsk State University together with colleagues from the United States. The study was attended by the chief researcher at the Research Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics of TSU Galina Ryabova

“The information received is important to clarify the age of the meteoroid flow and the origin of its parental body-asteroid 3200 Phaeton,” RIA Tomsk reports with reference to the TSU press service.

In addition, studies of meteoroid substance are important for ensuring the safety of spacecraft, which will be involved in the nearest space missions.

The university’s press service noted that now the phaeton-heminides system is the object of constant attention of scientists. Researchers seek to understand the processes that led to its appearance. So far, many details of the evolution of heminid remain unknown. This is partly due to the fact that until recently, a stream and asteroid were observed only on Earth.

In 2022, scientists received unique observations of the meteoroid stream of heminide from space. To study the Sun, NASA sent a Parker Solar Probe probe to it. In December 2024, he went through the crown of the sun at a distance of 6 million km.

In particular, the probe recorded a narrow dense dust trace near the orbit of the asteroid 3200 Phaeton. He was clearly connected with the heminides, but did not coincide with the orbit phaeton and the orbits of heminide meteors observed from the Earth. Thus, the probe gave an image of the flow away from our planet.

“These results are valuable in that, together with ground observations, researchers lead to understanding the spatial structure of the flow. The authors of the article saw that the “pictures” obtained from observations and from mathematical models diverge. In particular, according to the dust trace model, the asteroid should be inside the orbit, and Parker Solar Probe recorded it from the outside of the orbit, ”the university’s press service writes.

Data helps to advance in the study of the evolution of the orbit of the parental body of heminid. Scientists suggest that further research will help to reveal the secret of Phaeton. According to, there is sufficient reason to assume that earlier this celestial body was a comet. Passing near the sun, she lost a significant part of the flying matter, his catastrophic ejection moved the heavenly body to a new orbit. Based on the new data, you can try to find the original orbit of the parental body. Galina Ryabova admits that this is an extremely complicated but solved problem.