The Spanish Fireball Network: Popularizing Interplanetary Matter

In order to increase in Spain the social interest in the study of interplanetary matter (asteroids, comets and meteoroids) we created the Spanish Photographic Meteor Network (SPMN) in 1997. This network has been dedicated to studying interplanetary matter with participation of researchers from three universities (Universitat Jaume I, Universitat de Barcelona and Universitat de Valencia), the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC) and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia and it is also supported by the Atmospheric Sounding Station at El Arenosillo (INTA-CEDEA) and by the Experimental Station La Mayora (EELM-CSIC). In order to promote the participation of amateurs, our homepage…

Chemical abundances determined from meteor spectra II. Evidence for enlarged sodium abundances in meteoroids

9 pages, 5 figures.-- Printed version published Mar 2004.

Leonid fluxes: 1994-1998 activity patterns

Abstract-The Leonid meteor shower was observed worldwide in 1998 November in an intensive campaign without precedent. During this international effort -35 500 meteors were reported by members and collaborators of the International Meteor Organization (IMO) using a standard methodology. Despite the absence of a meteor storm in 1998, the rich observational data allow us to obtain a detailed unprecedented knowledge of the stream structure between 1994 and 1998. INTRODUCTION We present here the results from long-term visual monitoring by members and collaborators of the International Meteor Organization (IMO) and photographic and charge-coupled device (CCD) monitoring research obtained by membe…

Chemical abundances determined from meteor spectra: I. Ratios of the main chemical elements

Relative chemical abundances of 13 meteoroids were determined by averaging the composition of the radiating gas along the fireball path that originated during their penetration into the Earth's atmosphere. Mg, Fe, Ni, Cr, Mn, and Co abundances, relative to Si, are similar to those reported for CI and CM carbonaceous chondrites and interplanetary dust particles. In contrast, relative abundances of Ca and Ti in meteor spectra indicate that these elements suffer incomplete evaporation processes. The chemical composition of all meteoroids studied in this work differs from that of 1P/Halley dust.

The Spanish fireball network

Spanish Photographic Meteor Network: An interdisciplinary crosslink

This paper reports the birth of the Spanish Photographic Meteor Network (SPMN), a project that began their activities in 1997 through professional and amateur astronomers, coinciding with the high activity associated to several stream’s outbursts. One of the objectives of the network is to develop a continuous fireball monitoring in Spain and to obtain orbital and chemical information on meteoroids. Today the SPMN is a solid project under the auspices of three Universities (University Jaume I, University of Valencia and University of Barcelona) and one Space Institute (Catalonian Institute for Space Studies). The National Institute for Aerospace Research (INTA) and the Scientific Research C…

Pd2Au36(SR)(24) cluster: structure studies

The location of the Pd atoms in Pd2Au36(SC2H4Ph)(24), is studied both experimentally and theoretically. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicates oxidized Pd atoms. Palladium K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) data clearly show Pd-S bonds, which is supported by far infrared spectroscopy and by comparing theoretical EXAFS spectra in R space and circular dichroism spectra of the staple, surface and core doped structures with experimental spectra.