[meteorite-list] fire flies or flying fires

From: Dawn & Gerald Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Jun 26 21:46:32 2005
Message-ID: <022001c57ab5$db9f5a10$6502a8c0_at_GerryLaptop>

Thank you Sterling. precise, succinct and poignant as usual.
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly_at_bhil.com>
To: "Chris Peterson" <clp_at_alumni.caltech.edu>;
<Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>; "Dawn & Gerald Flaherty"
<grf2_at_verizon.net>; "Graham Christensen" <voltage@telus.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 9:26 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] fire flies or flying fires


> Hi,
>
>
> Ring systems (former ones, anyway) have been proposed for the Earth.
>
> Go to archives or your own Inbox if you keep as much stuff as I do,
and find
> a two part post by Graham Christensen of "The Formation of Tektites from a
> Terrestrial Ring Arc By J. Hayawardena" on March 27 of this year (2005).
>
> John O'Keefe postulated a ring system for the Eocene (35 million years
ago)
> that went into orbital decay (forming tektites with each breakup).
> Hayawardena's ideas are more elaborate.
>
> O'Keefe was inspired to his idea by the phenomenon of the Chant Trace
of
> 1913 which appears to have been the sub-orbital decay of many small bodies
in a
> ring around the entire planet, creating one of the largest and most
unusual
> meteor displays of all time. It actually happened, but is largely
unexplained.
>
> I posted a long description of the Chant Trace event on March 26,
2005, and
> Graham (it was new to him!) posted the Hayawardena piece (it was new to
me!) the
> next day!
>
> Basically, anything orbiting the Earth inside the Moon's orbit is
long-term
> unstable because the Moon perturbs inner objects to increase their
eccentricity
> without limit until they smack into... the Moon!
>
> This is why all the gigantic lava-flowed impact basins are on the side
of
> the Moon that faces the Earth and there's so few on the far side. Most of
those
> ancient huge impactors were probably in orbit around the Earth back in its
wild
> and woolly youth!
>
> No picture of the Earth taken by any spacecraft near and far away in
any
> wavelength of light or radar shows any traces of an extended dust ring,
which is
> why I kind of doubt any exists.
>
> But I do like the thought of a stroll down the beach of an Eocene
night by
> the brighter than moonlight glow of The Rings! Even if they are
imaginary...
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
> Chris Peterson wrote:
>
> > I doubt there is a stable solution for a ring system in a binary planet
> > system like the Earth/Moon, unless possibly they are very close to the
> > Earth. But if they are close to the Earth, they would show up by
interacting
> > with geosynchronous satellites. AFAIK there is no difference in
> > meteorite/micrometeorite impact risk for geosynchronous satellites
versus
> > those in other orbits.
> >
> > Not sure what connection you are suggesting between a ring system and
debris
> > collecting at Lagrangian points. Those seem unrelated to me.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > *****************************************
> > Chris L Peterson
> > Cloudbait Observatory
> > http://www.cloudbait.com
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Dawn & Gerald Flaherty" <grf2_at_verizon.net>
> > To: <Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> > Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 6:28 PM
> > Subject: [meteorite-list] fire flies or flying fires
> >
> > > List,
> > > I once asked the List if the Earth could have as yet undetected
> > > FAINT[obviously faint enough to have as yet evaded detection] debris
> > > rings.
> > > I don't mean to beat a dead horse here but, I'll ask the list again to
> > > consider this possibility given the various optical phenomena
[Kordylewski
> > > Clouds, Lagrangian Points,] yet fully explained and the difficulties
> > > observing potential rings due to Solar interference for one.
> > > By way of a poor analogy, Flying Gnats "glow" bright when their angle
to
> > > the
> > > sun and our eye are "fortunate". At other times of the day you'll
swallow
> > > or
> > > breathe them before you ever see them. Swallows dart around feasting
on
> > > these tiny critters all day long as they make flight adjustments to
> > > highlight their prey.
> > > Points of observation are everything.
> > > Hope I don't raise anyone's ire. Just love to speculate for fun and
> > > profit!!
> > > Jerry
>
>
>
Received on Sun 26 Jun 2005 09:16:33 PM PDT