[meteorite-list] Any Meteorites of Earth Origin?

From: Jeff Grossman <jgrossman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:47:10 2004
Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20011111141353.02de7ea0_at_pop3.norton.antivirus>

Alan Rubin and I wrote a definition of "meteorite" for Meteorite! a while
back that allowed for terrestrial meteorites. Our current thinking is that
the object would have to have left Earth by natural processes
(impact-launching seems the only option, although this is highly
improbable), either by achieving escape velocity, or by insertion into
Earth orbit via some secondary change to its trajectory (we want to
eliminate material on ballistic paths that take it immediately back to
Earth, e.g., tektites). If such material later reaccretes to Earth or
accretes to another body (like the Moon or an asteroid), we would define
this as a terrestrial meteorite.

Of course, we already have terrestrial meteorites in our collections if the
well-accepted theory of lunar formation is correct. But that's just
semantics. There is no evidence for more recent events on Earth producing
terrestrial meteorites.

jeff

At 12:20 PM 11/11/2001, you wrote:
>Would it be possible to find a meteorite who's parent body was the
>Earth?
>
>Could some of the material ejected from the Earth during the impact
>that formed the moon might still be coming back to Earth in the form
>of meteorites?
>
>Could one of the major impacts since ejected material that only now is
>coming back to Earth?
>
>Rob
>
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Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman phone: (703) 648-6184
US Geological Survey fax: (703) 648-6383
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA
Received on Sun 11 Nov 2001 02:34:24 PM PST