Collisions in the Solar System - III. Meteoroid survival times

The lifetimes of meteoroids against catastrophic collisions with zodiacal dust particles is evaluated for specific orbits, including for the first time the effect of the orbital inclination. A simple fan model of the form |${r}^{-1.3}(1-\sin\, \beta )$| is used for the zodiacal cloud, where r is the solar distance and β the ecliptic latitude. Although the results are for meteoroids of radius 1 mm, the collisional lifetimes for larger or smaller bodies can be found by the application of simple scaling factors. The figures can be used to estimate the collisional lifetime of any meteoroid in any particular orbit. The collisional lifetimes of 28 well-known streams are also calculated. Finally, an alternative method for the calculation of the spatial density of an object in an arbitrary orbit is presented.