[meteorite-list] Slowest possible meteorites?

From: Dieter Heinlein <dieter.heinlein_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:42:01 2004
Message-ID: <00bd01c080c8$219807c0$4dfa7fc3_at_oemcomputer>

Hi Vernon and List,

theoretically such a piece of matter could have the speed ZERO with
respect to the Earth, when entering the earth's atmosphere at about
300 km height.
If there would be no (or only very thin) atmosphere present, the body
would be accelerated to 11.2 km/s until it would hit the Earth's crust.
But since there IS an atmosphere, such a body will be accelerated
by gravity and then decelerated by denser parts of the atmosphere,
hitting the ground with the "free fall" velocity of about 80 m/s.

Dieter

>
> Hi, Would anyone know what the slowest speed which a meteorite, or anything
> for that matter, would have when it entered the Earth's atmosphere? Gravity
> would accelerate everything, even objects with orbits similar to the
> Earth's, up to a certain speed. Is there a minimum speed limit?
> Cheers, Vern
>
Received on Wed 17 Jan 2001 03:57:13 PM PST