RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MASSES AND MAGNITUDES OF SMALL METEOROIDS,

An estimate of the probable masses of meteors of different brightness and velocities was made. Only meteors of relatively small sizes, ranging from about 1 to 0.0001 centimeters in radius were considered. An approximate distinction has been made between meteors of magnitudes larger than plus one and smaller than minus one, in order to account for the various sources of visible radiation predominant for different magnitude or brightness ranges. The time interval over which a meteor of a certain magnitude is visible to an observer was included in the mass calculations. Mass calculations were made for three major showers the Geminids, the Perseids, and the Leonids the corresponding average velocities with which particles belonging to these showers enter the earths atmosphere are about 35 kmsec, 61 kmsec and 71 kmsec respectively. The results show that the determination of meteor masses from the luminositymagnitude relation is dependent to some degree on the luminous efficiency and on the duration or visible path length.