By Damir Šegon, Denis Vida, Paul Roggemans, James M. Scott, Jeff Wood
Abstract: A new meteor shower has been detected between the 20th and 26st of February 2026 from a radiant at R.A. = 161.6° and Decl.= +8.9° in the constellation of Virgo, with a geocentric velocity of 27.3 km/s on a Jupiter family comet orbit. The new shower has been included in the IAU-MDC working list of meteor showers with the provisional identification M2026-D1.
1 Introduction
Previously unrecognized meteor activity appeared as a bright spot on the GMN radiant density map of 21–22 February in 2026 (Figure 1). A preliminary analysis revealed that the activity had been ongoing for a few days, with the activity having ceased by the 1st of March (Figure 2). The shower was detected by 341 cameras from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom and the USA.
The radiant is situated in the anti-helion region and difficult to distinguish from the dense sporadic background activity. The new shower has been reported to the IAU-Meteor Data Center (MDC) and got the preliminary designation M2026-D1.
Figure 1 – Radiant density map with 2357 radiants obtained by the Global Meteor Network during 21–22 February, 2026. The position of the M2026-D1 radiant in Sun-centered geocentric ecliptic coordinates is marked with a yellow arrow.
Figure 2 – Changes in the radiant appearance of the M2026-D1 shower during its activity period.
2 Shower classification based on radiants
The GMN shower association criteria assume that meteors within 1° in solar longitude, within 1.2° in radiant in this case, and within 10% in geocentric velocity of a shower reference location are members of that shower. Further details about the shower association are explained in Moorhead et al. (2020). Using these meteor shower selection criteria, 160 orbits have been identified as M2026-D1 meteors. The results have been listed in Table 1.
Figure 3 – Dispersion median offset on the radiant position.
Figure 4 – The radiant distribution during the solar-longitude interval 331° – 337° in equatorial coordinates in 2026.
Figure 5 – The radiant drift.
Figure 6 – The radiant distribution during the solar-longitude interval 331° – 337° in Sun centered geocentric ecliptic coordinates.
3 Shower classification based on orbits
A complete independent meteoroid stream search has been applied for confirmation based upon orbit data obtained between Solar Longitude 326.0° and 341.0° during the years 2019 to 2026. 91540 orbits were available within this time interval and a final mean orbit has been computed by the method of Jopek et al. (2006) for the thresholds DSH < 0.10 and DD < 0.04 and DJ < 0.10 (Southworth and Hawkins, 1963; Drummond, 1981; Jopek, 1993), based upon the Rayleigh fit in Figure 7. The results with the mean orbit based upon 562 meteors for 2019–2026 and upon 294 meteors for 2026, have been listed in Table 1. The method has been described in a separate publication (Roggemans et al., 2026a).
Figure 7 – Rayleigh fit on the Drummond criterion for the 2026 data of M2026-D1.
Figure 8 – The radiant distribution during the solar-longitude interval 326° – 341° in equatorial coordinates, color-coded for different threshold values of the combined similarity criteria.
Figure 9 – The radiant distribution during the solar-longitude interval 326° – 341° in Sun-centered geocentric ecliptic coordinates, color-coded for different threshold values of the combined similarity criteria.
Figure 10 – The Sun-centered geocentric longitude λ–λʘ in function of the Solar Longitude λʘ for M2026-D1 based upon orbits (2019–2026) and radiant classification (2026).
Figure 11 – The Sun-centered geocentric latitude β in function of the Solar Longitude λʘ for M2026-D1 based upon orbits (2019–2026) and radiant classification (2026).
The radiant is located within the anti-helion source, an area of the sky that is densely populated with sporadic radiants. This shower probably did not catch the attention in the past as it couldn’t easily be distinguished from the dense sporadic background. The orbit classification method results in a larger scattered radiant than what has been used for the radiant shower classification.
Both Figure 8 in Equatorial coordinates and Figure 9 in Sun-centered ecliptic coordinates show the M2026-D1 radiant embedded in the sporadic background. In Equatorial coordinates the radiant appears elongated due to the radiant drift caused by the movement of the Earth on its orbit. In Figure 9 the radiant appears more compact because there is only a small drift with Δ(λ–λʘ) = –0.38°/degree in λʘ due to the change in orbit orientation during Earth’s transit (Figure 10). The ecliptic latitude β shows no trend (Figure 11).
Figure 12 – The percentage of M2026-D1-meteors relative to the total number of meteors, for the radiant method (2026) and the orbit classification method 2026.
The orbit classification method detects a longer activity period than the period assumed for the radiant classification method. Plotting the ratio M2026-D1 meteors/all meteors in Figure 12, for time intervals of 2° in Solar Longitude, plotted every 0.25°, results in a skewed profile with a steep incline followed by a slower decline in activity. The orbit method (blue) identified more M2026-D1 candidates than the radiant method (orange).
Both methods identified 304 meteors as M2026-D1 candidates, 150 (49%) of these were identified in common. Ten (3%) meteors were identified by the radiant method but failed to fit the D-criteria thresholds. 144 meteors (47%) were identified by the orbit method, but not by the radiant method. 64 of these meteors had orbits that fit the selection criteria before or after the activity period assumed by the radiant method.
4 Orbit and parent body
This type of low inclination orbit meteoroid stream with its radiant in the anti-helion region is very sensitive to sporadic contamination. Despite the differences in numbers of possible M2026-D1 meteors between both methods, the final mean orbits and shower parameters are in very good agreement, see Table 1.
The diagrams with of the Kepler elements versus each other show how the M2026-D1 meteoroid stream is embedded in a very dense cloud of meteoroid orbits. Figures 13 to 17 show how difficult it is to distinguish between shower meteors and sporadics. There are many low inclination meteors spread along the ecliptic plane so that the diagrams are not very helpful to locate a cluster that stands out of the almost saturated background noise.
Table 1 – Comparing solutions derived by the radiant based method and the orbit based method for DSH < 0.10 and DD < 0.04 and DJ < 0.10, in 2026 and for the years 2019–2026.
| Radiant method 2026 | Orbit method 2026 | Orbit method 2019–2026 | |
| λʘ (°) | 333.5 | 333.8 | 333.8 |
| λʘb (°) | 331.0 | 326.2 | 326.1 |
| λʘe (°) | 338.0 | 340.1 | 340.8 |
| αg (°) | 161.6 | 161.7 | 161.8 |
| δg (°) | +8.9 | +8.7 | +8.6 |
| Δαg (°) | +0.58 | +0.74 | +0.77 |
| Δδg (°) | –0.24 | –0.30 | –0.31 |
| vg (km/s) | 27.3 | 27.1 | 27.0 |
| Hb (km) | 98.3 | 97.8 | 97.6 |
| He (km) | 84.7 | 84.0 | 83.4 |
| Hp (km) | 88.7 | 88.0 | 87.6 |
| MagAp | +0.2 | +0.4 | +0.4 |
| λg (°) | 159.65 | 159.9 | 159.9 |
| λg – λʘ (°) | 186.15 | 186.0 | 186.2 |
| βg (°) | +1.02 | +0.9 | +0.9 |
| a (A.U.) | 2.635 | 2.560 | 2.49 |
| q (A.U.) | 0.449 | 0.450 | 0.449 |
| e | 0.830 | 0.824 | 0.820 |
| i (°) | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| ω (°) | 281.8 | 281.8 | 282.2 |
| Ω (°) | 334.0 | 334.0 | 333.9 |
| Π (°) | 255.8 | 255.8 | 256.1 |
| Tj | 2.77 | 2.83 | 2.88 |
| N | 160 | 294 | 562 |
Figure 13 – Inclination i versus the longitude of perihelion Π color-coded for different classes of D-criteria thresholds, for λʘ between 326° and 341°.
Figure 14 – Eccentricity e versus the longitude of perihelion Π color-coded for different classes of D-criteria thresholds, for λʘ between 326° and 341°.
Figure 15 – Eccentricity e versus the inclination i color-coded for different classes of D-criteria thresholds, for λʘ between 326° and 341°.
Figure 16 – Eccentricity e versus the perihelion distance q color-coded for different classes of D-criteria thresholds, for λʘ between 326° and 341°.
Figure 17 – Inclination i versus the perihelion distance q color-coded for different classes of D-criteria thresholds, for λʘ between 326° and 341°.
There is a trend in the perihelion distance q during the transit of Earth (Figure 18) and in Longitude of Perihelion Π (Figure 19) which both increase. The other Kepler elements remain stable during the activity period.
Figure 18 – The evolution of the perihelion distance q in function of the Solar Longitude λʘ for the M2026-D1 based upon orbits (2019–2026) and radiant classification (2026).
Figure 19 – The evolution of the Longitude of perihelion Π in function of the Solar Longitude λʘ for the M2026-D1 based upon orbits (2019–2026) and radiant classification (2026).
Figure 20 – Comparing the M2026-D1 solution (yellow) obtained by the radiant method with the solutions obtained by the orbit method for 2026 (purple) and 2019–2026 (blue), close-up at the inner Solar System. (Plotted with the Orbit visualization app provided by Pető Zsolt).
The M2026-D1 meteoroid stream has a Jupiter-family comet type orbit with a Tisserand value relative to planet Jupiter of TJ = 2.77. The stream is only slightly declined to the ecliptic plane and has its aphelion near the orbit of Jupiter. The stream intersects the Earth orbit at its descending node. The ascending node is slightly inside the orbit of Venus, which may cause a meteor shower on planet Venus. The stream is exposed to gravitational perturbations at close encounters to planets Earth, Jupiter, Mars and Venus. The enhanced activity in 2026 may be related to a dust trail formed by these perturbations. The number of orbits per year reflects the expansion of GMN in its early years but the camera coverage has not changed much since 2023. The number of M2026-D1 meteors in 2026 (Table 2) was much higher than in previous years. No trace of this shower could be found in older visual observations.
Table 2 – The number of M2026-D1 orbits with DSH < 0.10 and DD < 0.04 and DJ < 0.10 per year during the period 2019–2026.
| Year | Number of orbits |
| 2019 | 4 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 35 |
| 2022 | 32 |
| 2023 | 45 |
| 2024 | 32 |
| 2025 | 108 |
| 2026 | 294 |
| Total | 562 |
A search for possible parent bodies resulted in the top ten candidates listed in Table 3. Although DD < 0.036 looks like a good degree of similarity between the orbits, this value is at the limit for this type of orbit to exclude pure chance orbit similarity. Numeric integrations of the orbital evolution are required to reconstruct the most likely behavior of the stream and its possible parent bodies.
Table 3 – Top ten matches of a search for possible parent bodies with DD < 0.075, based upon the mean orbit derived from the radiant classification method.
| Name | DD |
| 2024 CA8 | 0.036 |
| 2013 TR135 | 0.037 |
| 2017 DW108 | 0.045 |
| 2022 SK28 | 0.055 |
| (199145) 2005 YY128 | 0.066 |
| (612924) 2005 CL | 0.068 |
| D/1766 G1 (Helfenzrieder) | 0.068 |
| 2012 DX13 | 0.069 |
| 2019 SO6 | 0.070 |
| 2024 TH4 | 0.070 |
5 Conclusion
A reliable orbit was established for a newly discovered meteor shower with a radiant in the constellation Virgo that displayed an outburst on 21–22 February 2026. The compact concentration of radiants visible on the daily GMN radiant density plots allowed distinction of the shower from the very dense sporadic background activity at the anti-helion area at the sky. The shower has been added to the IAU-MDC Working List of Meteor Showers with the temporary assignation M2026-D1.
Acknowledgments
This report is based on the data of the Global Meteor Network (Vida et al., 2020a; 2020b; 2021) which is released under the CC BY 4.0 license. We thank all 927 participants in the Global Meteor Network project for their contribution and perseverance. A list with the names of the volunteers who contribute to GMN has been published in the 2025 annual report (Roggemans et al., 2026b). The following 767 cameras contributed to paired meteors used in this study:
AT0004, AU0002, AU0003, AU0004, AU0006, AU000A, AU000B, AU000C, AU000D, AU000F, AU000G, AU000J, AU000L, AU000R, AU000S, AU000U, AU000V, AU000W, AU000X, AU000Y, AU000Z, AU0010, AU001A, AU001B, AU001C, AU001D, AU001E, AU001F, AU001K, AU001L, AU001N, AU001P, AU001Q, AU001R, AU001S, AU001U, AU001V, AU001W, AU001X, AU001Y, AU001Z, AU0029, AU002A, AU002B, AU002D, AU0030, AU003E, AU003H, AU003J, AU0042, AU0043, AU0045, AU0048, AU004A, AU004L, BA0002, BA0005, BE0001, BE0002, BE0004, BE0006, BE0007, BE0009, BE000A, BE000C, BE000D, BE000E, BE000G, BE000K, BE000L, BE000M, BE000Q, BE000T, BE000U, BE000V, BE000Y, BE0014, BE0015, BE0019, BE001A, BE001B, BG0001, BG0003, BG0005, BG000B, BG000C, BR0002, BR000G, BR000M, BR000T, BR001F, BR001Q, BR001R, BR001T, BR001W, BR002A, CA0007, CA000Q, CA000U, CA000V, CA0012, CA001B, CA001R, CA0026, CA002K, CA002L, CA002Q, CA002R, CA002U, CA002V, CA0031, CA003A, CA003D, CA003E, CH0002, CH0003, CH0005, CZ0004, CZ0008, CZ0009, CZ000A, CZ000B, CZ000E, CZ000G, CZ000J, CZ000K, CZ000L, CZ000M, CZ000U, CZ000W, CZ000X, DE0001, DE0005, DE000B, DE000J, DE000M, DE000Q, DE000S, DE000X, DE000Y, DE0013, DK0001, DK0009, DK000B, DK000D, DK000G, ES0004, ES0005, ES000E, ES000K, ES000T, ES000U, ES000V, ES0013, ES0016, ES0019, ES001J, ES001L, FR0006, FR000A, FR000G, FR000R, FR000Y, FR000Z, FR0011, FR0013, GR0002, GR0004, GR0005, GR0006, GR0007, GR0008, GR0009, HR0002, HR0006, HR0007, HR000D, HR000F, HR000G, HR000H, HR000J, HR000K, HR000M, HR000P, HR000Q, HR000S, HR000V, HR000W, HR000Z, HR0010, HR0015, HR0016, HR001A, HR001D, HR001H, HR001L, HR001N, HR001Q, HR001S, HR001Z, HR0024, HR0025, HR0027, HR002D, HR002F, HR002G, HR002H, HR002J, HR002K, HR002V, HR002W, HR002X, HR002Y, HU0001, HU0002, HU0003, HU0005, HU000A, HU000B, IE0004, IE000H, IE000J, IE000M, IL0002, IL0004, IL0009, IT0001, IT0004, IT0008, KR0001, KR0002, KR0003, KR0004, KR0005, KR0006, KR0007, KR0008, KR0009, KR000A, KR000C, KR000D, KR000E, KR000F, KR000G, KR000H, KR000J, KR000K, KR000L, KR000M, KR000N, KR000P, KR000Q, KR000R, KR000S, KR000Y, KR000Z, KR0010, KR0011, KR0012, KR0013, KR0014, KR0015, KR0016, KR0017, KR0018, KR0019, KR001A, KR001B, KR001C, KR001D, KR001E, KR001F, KR001K, KR001P, KR001U, KR001X, KR001Y, KR0020, KR0021, KR0022, KR0025, KR0026, KR0027, KR0029, KR002A, KR002B, KR002D, KR002E, KR002F, KR002G, KR002H, KR002J, KR002M, KR002N, KR002Q, KR002R, KR002S, KR002T, KR0036, KR0037, KR0039, KR003J, KR003K, KR003M, KR003N, KR003P, KR003Q, KR003R, KR003S, KR003T, KR003U, KR003V, KR003W, KR003X, LU0001, MX000D, NL0001, NL000C, NL000K, NL000M, NL000Q, NL0010, NZ0001, NZ0002, NZ0003, NZ0004, NZ0007, NZ0008, NZ0009, NZ000D, NZ000H, NZ000L, NZ000P, NZ000S, NZ000W, NZ000X, NZ000Y, NZ000Z, NZ0010, NZ0011, NZ0012, NZ0014, NZ0015, NZ0016, NZ0017, NZ0018, NZ0019, NZ001E, NZ001G, NZ001H, NZ001L, NZ001R, NZ001S, NZ001X, NZ001Y, NZ0020, NZ0021, NZ0022, NZ0023, NZ0026, NZ0027, NZ0028, NZ0029, NZ002C, NZ002D, NZ002F, NZ002G, NZ002H, NZ002K, NZ002L, NZ002N, NZ002Q, NZ002R, NZ002S, NZ002T, NZ002U, NZ002V, NZ002W, NZ002X, NZ002Z, NZ0030, NZ0032, NZ0033, NZ0034, NZ0036, NZ0037, NZ0038, NZ003B, NZ003C, NZ003E, NZ003H, NZ003K, NZ003N, NZ003Q, NZ003R, NZ003S, NZ003T, NZ003U, NZ003V, NZ003Y, NZ003Z, NZ0040, NZ0041, NZ0042, NZ0044, NZ0045, NZ0046, NZ0049, NZ004A, NZ004B, NZ004C, NZ004D, NZ004E, NZ004F, NZ004H, NZ004J, NZ004L, NZ004M, NZ004N, NZ004R, NZ004T, NZ004U, NZ004W, NZ004Y, NZ0051, NZ0059, NZ005B, NZ005C, NZ005F, NZ005G, NZ005H, NZ005K, NZ005M, NZ005N, NZ005Q, NZ005R, NZ005U, NZ005Z, NZ0061, NZ0063, NZ0065, NZ0066, NZ0067, NZ0069, NZ006A, NZ006C, NZ006D, NZ006E, NZ006F, NZ006G, NZ007C, PL0005, PL000B, PL000D, PL000G, PT0002, RO0001, RO0002, RO0004, RU0003, RU0004, RU000B, RU000M, RU0012, RU0013, RU0019, SI0001, SI0002, SI0005, SK0003, SK0005, SK0006, UK0001, UK0002, UK0004, UK0006, UK0008, UK0009, UK000D, UK000H, UK000P, UK000S, UK000T, UK000Y, UK000Z, UK001H, UK001L, UK001P, UK001R, UK001S, UK001T, UK001Y, UK001Z, UK0024, UK0025, UK0026, UK002C, UK002F, UK002K, UK002L, UK002T, UK002W, UK002X, UK002Y, UK002Z, UK0031, UK0032, UK0034, UK0035, UK0038, UK003A, UK003B, UK003C, UK003D, UK003G, UK003L, UK003S, UK003U, UK003V, UK003X, UK003Z, UK0041, UK0042, UK0049, UK004B, UK004D, UK004E, UK004F, UK004G, UK004J, UK004M, UK004P, UK004V, UK0056, UK0057, UK005E, UK005G, UK005H, UK005L, UK005M, UK005N, UK005P, UK005R, UK005V, UK0060, UK0061, UK0066, UK0067, UK006C, UK006D, UK006E, UK006G, UK006H, UK006L, UK006P, UK006V, UK006Z, UK0070, UK0078, UK0079, UK007A, UK007B, UK007G, UK007H, UK007L, UK007P, UK007R, UK007U, UK007V, UK007Y, UK007Z, UK0080, UK0081, UK0083, UK0084, UK0087, UK008B, UK008C, UK008D, UK008F, UK008G, UK008T, UK0092, UK0096, UK0098, UK009A, UK009D, UK009F, UK009G, UK009J, UK009L, UK009P, UK009Q, UK009V, UK009W, UK009X, UK00A0, UK00A1, UK00A2, UK00A3, UK00A4, UK00A5, UK00A7, UK00AB, UK00AD, UK00AE, UK00AF, UK00AG, UK00AJ, UK00AK, UK00AL, UK00AM, UK00AN, UK00AP, UK00AT, UK00AU, UK00B0, UK00B1, UK00B2, UK00B5, UK00B7, UK00BA, UK00BE, UK00BF, UK00BJ, UK00BK, UK00BL, UK00BW, UK00C1, UK00C2, UK00C7, UK00CC, UK00CH, UK00CJ, UK00CQ, UK00CS, UK00CT, UK00CU, UK00CV, UK00CZ, UK00DB, UK00DE, UK00DH, UK00DJ, UK00DN, US0001, US0002, US0003, US0004, US0005, US0006, US0007, US0008, US0009, US000A, US000C, US000D, US000E, US000G, US000H, US000J, US000K, US000L, US000M, US000N, US000P, US000R, US000S, US000U, US000V, US001L, US001P, US001Q, US001R, US001V, US0020, US0021, US0022, US0027, US002A, US002M, US002N, US002R, US002X, US002Z, US0030, US0036, US0037, US0039, US003G, US003N, US003P, US003T, US003Y, US004A, US004B, US004C, US004N, US004P, US004Q, US004U, US0050, US0051, US0055, US0057, US005A, US005B, US005C, US005D, US005E, US005H, US005J, US005K, US005Q, US005W, US005X, US005Y, US005Z, US0061, US0062, US0066, US006A, USL001, USL002, USL003, USL004, USL005, USL006, USL007, USL008, USL009, USL00A, USL00B, USL00C, USL00D, USL00E, USL00F, USL00G, USL00H, USL00J, USL00M, USL00N, USL00P, USL00Q, USL00V, USL00Y, USL00Z, USL011, USL012, USL013, USL014, USL015, USL017, USL018, USL019, USL01A, USL01B, USL01D, USL01E, USV001, USV002, USV003, ZA0002, ZA0007, ZA000A, ZA000D.
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