[meteorite-list] Question about ejecta

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:48:09 2004
Message-ID: <3BB9D48C.C8E8E5C3_at_bhil.com>

Hi, Sam and List,

    The quick and dirty answer is YES. Not only possible but inevitable. The exact percentage of ejecta that return to the parent body varies
with the precise orbital circumstances of the parent body. Simulations suggest that about 10% of Mars rocks will end up back on Mars, while
about 75% of Mercury rocks will end up back on Mercury, and so forth.

    A good source for the most complete simulations of what happens to ejecta from the bodies in the inner solar system is:

        Science, March 8, 1996 v271 n5254 p1387(6).
Title: The exchange of impact ejecta between terrestrial planets.
Authors: Brett J. Gladman, Joseph A. Burns, Martin Duncan,
          Pascal Lee and Harold F. Levison

    This would also include our own terra firma, producing meteorites on Earth that were from Earth! Maybe it's time to look at some of those
"pseudometeorites" in the Catalog more closely?


Sterling K. Webb





Sam Tough wrote:

> Hi list, hope everyone is okay and well. I was wondering if it is possible
> for a piece of ejecta to be blasted from a parent body only to return to
> that same parent body. As in blasted from the surface of the moon and then
> return to the moon. Or do the physics of the impact forever send the ejected
> material away from the orbit of the parent body? Thanks in advance for any
> responses,
> Sam Tough
> Toledo, Oregon
>
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Received on Tue 02 Oct 2001 10:51:57 AM PDT