[meteorite-list] Leonid Wipe Out From MI/The Possible Indiana Leonid Meteorites

From: almitt <almitt_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:47:13 2004
Message-ID: <3BFC2907.CC64EC70_at_kconline.com>

Hi Mark and all,

You bring out a good point about not over looking a possible meteorite fall. Even though meteor showers haven't ever been documented to deliver
a meteorite yet, that doesn't mean we don't have some in our collections. Also it is quite possible that a fall could occur during a meteor
shower even though it isn't related to the shower. I try to keep an open mind, while asking myself what makes sense and what doesn't.

The aubrite parent bodies are known and they don't follow in the same orbit that the Leonids do. So I think we can rule these out. (waiting for
Bernd to chime in here :-) Aubrites have a light cream color fusion crust and would certainly be smoothed over from flight which the specimen
held up didn't seem to have. Also iron in the aubrites is very sparse.

I ruled this out because of the look of the specimen but also because of a number of other items. First most meteorites originate from the
asteroid belt from collisions that place them in unstable orbits where they can become Earth crossing due to Jupiter's gravity. Meteor showers
on the other hand are the result of cometary debris falling off the comet from the solar wind and heat from the sun as it gets closer to the
sun in its orbit and the Earth crossing into this very fine material that results in the meteor showers. Also I wouldn't expect a Leonid to
survive passage because of the speed in which they fall which is quite fast. Most meteorites that survive passage catch up to the Earth and
then fall, rather than hit the Earth head on as the Leonids did at the time of this this suggested fall. All my best!

--AL

>>The pictures I saw on www.thetimesonline.com naturally do not suggest a good meteorite<< >>suspect at first glance, but nevertheless, do
resemble to some vague degree to that of an aubrite<<
>>at least to me. If I am correct, don't aubrites have a few flakes of nickel-iron and exist<<
>>with brownish fusion crusts?<<
Received on Wed 21 Nov 2001 05:22:00 PM PST