[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Bolide size vs. Recovered Stone(s)
Dear List Members!
AL may be right when he says that there are different ideas about what a
fireball or bolide is or isn’t. He is not right when he says that a
discussion thereof is counterproductive. By reading, checking and
verifying the postings I was ‘forced’ to rethink matters or maybe to
realize for the first time that I had been using two terms
indiscriminately.
On the other hand, it is really surprising that an expert like ZDENEK
CEPLECHA (see below) still uses the term.
Maybe the different nationalities and languages are to blame: Mr. Z.
CEPLECHA is Czech, A. CARION is French, most of you are American or
Canadian (here it would be interesting what a Franco-Canadian says), I
am German and Italians use the ‘bolide’ too.
Regards, Bernd Pauli
1) A passage from Alain Carion’s Météorites:
On entend d'abord la, ou les explosions correspondant à l'onde de choc
située en avant du, ou des b o l i d e s ...
First you perceive the explosion(s) (= sonic booms) caused by the shock
waves in front of the b o l i d e (s) ...
2) A passage from the ‘Grand Larousse’ (comparable to the Encyclopedia
Britannica)
a) BOLIDE n.m.(greek: bolis, -idos = jet de lumière) - Appellation que
les astronomes ont tendance à abandonner de nos jours ...
Translation: Greek ‘jet of light’ - A term that astronomers have a
tendency to abandon nowadays
b) Dans l'ancienne terminologie, les bolides étaient plus
particulièrement celles des météorites dont la masse était suffisante
pour arriver jusqu’au sol, après avoir donné lieu à un phénomène optique
et sonore. Le phénomène sonore correspondait soit à la perception de
l'onde de choc résultant du rapide déplacement de ce corps dans
l'atmosphère terrestre, soit à une véritable explosion.
Translation: In traditional terminology, the term bolide especially
referred to meteorites whose mass was sufficient to make it to the
ground after having given rise to optical and sound phenomena. The
accoustic phenomenon may have been due to the perception of a shock wave
resulting from the rapid motion of the celestial body in the earth’s
atmosphere or there may really have been an explosion.
3) Sky & Telescope, Jan 1998, p. 14:
Bolide Chasers
Several colleagues and I are attempting to create a worldwide network of
volunteers for the timely reporting and dissemination of information on
very large bolide events. Members of this network should be well
connected to event-reporting sources and able to travel quickly to an
event's location to collect eyewitness statements and other data ...
ZDENEK CEPLECHA Astronomical Observatory CZ-251 65 Ondrejov The Czech
Republic ceplecha@asu.cas.cz
Follow-Ups: