2 Aug 2016

Peter Jenniskens reports that the CAMS meteor shower survey stations in the Netherlands noticed unusually strong activity from the normally weak July gamma Draconids meteor shower (IAU shower number 184) in the night of July 27/28. About half of all 126 single-station detected meteors that night, typically about +2 magnitude bright, radiated from this shower's radiant (see plot above), as did 5 out of 9 multi-station meteors. Confirmation comes from the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar, sensitive to mainly fainter +7 magnitude meteors. This radar, too, detected a 2-hour wide outburst centered on 0h UT, July 28. The outburst is significant as it might announce the approach of the parent body comet to the Sun. So far, this comet has not been discovered yet.