[meteorite-list] Meteorite Questions

From: Maria Haas <dragonsoup_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:53:46 -0700
Message-ID: <BAY109-DAV6C46045CA309A85941171CDCD0_at_phx.gbl>

Walter asked:

> Also, I have read that some meteoroids travel through space in streams and
> impact the Earth simultaneously (i.e., they have already broken up before
> they hit the Earth's atmosphere). How can this be? I would think that
> once
> a meteoroid has broken in space (most likely due to impact), minute
> deviations of the individual pieces in the initial trajectory would
> translate into ever increasing deviations in the individual piece's
> trajectory, over time. Unless two pieces were traveling in EXACTLY
> parallel
> lines, over time the pieces would be widely dispersed in space.


>From Robert Haag's 2003 Collection of Meteorites, Page 89:
"Saint Severin (large at top) 3.1 kilos, and Ensisheim (small, bottom) 85
grams.
Amphoterite chondrites (LL6) 20% total iron. These meteorites are both
historically and scientifically important - while they fell over 500 years
apart, they landed within 100 miles of one another and are chemically and
visually identical. In fact, when placed side by side, they appear to be
from one contiguous piece. Saint Severin fell June 6, 1966 and Ensisheim
fell November 16, 1492. Obviously they come from the same asteroid parent
body."


To expand on Walter's question -- whether they travel in streams or rubble
piles, any idea how these two could fall so many years apart and within such
a close proximity of each other?

Are there others that have fallen "together" like Saint Severin and
Ensisheim?

Maria
Received on Thu 30 Aug 2007 03:53:46 AM PDT