[meteorite-list] Cali chondrite fell extremely cold!

From: Robert Woolard <meteoritefinder_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 13:35:33 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <870871.76654.qm_at_web38910.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Mike, Al, etc.,

  With the assumed-evidence of frost forming on some
freshly observed falls, and the seemingly logical
assumption behind the physics of heat-transfer-rates
vs the relatively short time a falling meteor travels
at hyper velocity, I tend to believe that meteorites
are probably cold to the touch when they impact.
However, I would bet that greater than 99% of the
people on Earth would just ASSUME that they "must" be
hot. (Especially when almost every Hollywood movie
shows meteorites "burning" all the way to the ground
and then exploding in a big ball of fire.)

  Below is a copy of some info I found on a website
under the heading of "Unified Theory of the Nervous
System and Behavior":

  "If you touch something that is extremely cold (such
as dry ice) you feel a burning sensation. Too much
cold becomes hot."

  And here are a few words from another site on the
sense of touch:

  ".... our skin does not perceive the exact
temperature of an object. Instead, your skin can sense
the difference in temperature of a new object in
comparison to the temperature of an object the skin
was already used to ("relative temperature")."

     I wonder if people who claim that meteorites were
hot to the touch, were simply mistaking the cold
temperature as being hot? I would be willing to bet
that in almost every case, they are not picking up the
meteorite in their hands and holding it for several
seconds until it "burns" them and they throw it down.
Rather, I wonder if they are ALREADY assuming it IS
going to be hot and they tap it very briefly with the
end of their finger and when their nerve endings send
the message that it is a different temperature, they
misinterpret it as being hot, because that was what
they are expecting. It just wouldn't make sense to
them that it was COLD. It "must" be hot. After all,
its a "flaming meteorite", just like the ones they've
seen in the movies.

  And as far as the melted plastic on the PV, it is my
own meager opinion that it was the hot sun shining on
a black metallic meteorite, sitting on a black piece
of plastic on the hot ground, that caused it to stick.


  Robert Woolard
    
--- AL Mitterling <almitt at kconline.com> wrote:

> Hi Alex, Elton, Sterling and all,
>
> Nininger did a number of investigations where people
> picked up
> meteorites soon after the fall. His conclusions were
> they were cold to
> the touch (a number of them frosted over) after
> falling. Seems however
> there is always an exception to the rule and this
> seem to be the case
> for Noblesville, Indiana which was recovered seconds
> after the fall
> nearly missing Broody Spaulding and his friend by a
> few feet. They
> claimed it was warm to the touch.
>
> One of the Portales Valley specimens was said to
> have melted a tarp
> after its fall. This meteorite had lots of metal in
> it though and might
> explain that. Also in the hot desert it isn't
> impossible for the black
> crust to absorb heat and melt plastic.
>
> I've come to the conclusion that most falls will be
> cold to the touch
> with a few rare exceptions being slightly warm to
> hot to the touch.
> There isn't any scientifically documented instances
> (that I know of)
> where meteorites have cause fires. They just aren't
> that hot. The study
> of meteorites is of undifferentiated material. If
> they were red hot,
> white hot when they fell then their isotopes would
> be re-set and all the
> useful information would be lost. The exception of
> course is the ablated
> crust.
>
>
> --AL Mitterling
>
>
>
> Mr EMan wrote:
>
> In my mind this supports that the thermal transfer
> coefficent
> is the key factor and that stones will be cold and
> irons will be
> warm immediately after landing.
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Received on Sun 29 Jul 2007 04:35:33 PM PDT