Abstract
While comets eject mass mostly at cm-sizes and larger, that size range of particles is mostly absent from the interplanetary medium. Such particles are thought to be lost from the solar system by grain-grain collisions. Here, we investigate the lifetime of cm-sized meteoroids from their abundance in meteoroid streams of different age. For 487 streams, we measured the orbital element dispersions, the magnitude size distribution index, the ratio of fluffy and dense materials in the stream and their bulk densities, and the meteor light curve shape-parameter. We find that older long-period comet meteoroid streams tend to be more dispersed and evolve towards smaller semi-major axis, higher magnitude size distribution index, and contain relatively more high-density material. Meteoroids that approach the Sun closer than 0.2–0.3 AU are mostly young and composed of denser materials poor in sodium. We compare the observed properties of the streams to age estimates from the literature and to a set of new age estimates for long-period comet streams based on observed dispersions. We find that streams broaden with age inversely proportional to the perihelion distance (q). By selecting narrow ranges of age, we find that their magnitude distribution index changes proportional to 1/√q, less steep than expected from meteoroid destruction by collisions. Instead, this shallow dependence suggests a lifetime inversely proportional to the peak grain temperature along its orbit, with the lifetime limited by thermal stresses if 0.3 < q < 1.02 AU and by sublimation if q < 0.2 AU.
•Long-period comet streams disperse with inverse perihelion distance and linear in time.•Meteoroid streams lose cm-sized grains faster than mm-sized grains.•Streams contain both low- and high-density materials, dense materials survive longer.•Streams with q < 0.2 AU are young and their meteoroids are often physically altered.•Peak grain temperature limits the lifetime of cm-sized grains in orbits with q < 1.02 AU.•Thermal stresses are important for 0.3 < q < 1.02 AU, while sublimation is for q < 0.2 AU.