[meteorite-list] When is a fall...?

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:50:51 -0500
Message-ID: <e51421550904251350y5e84275wc1c5f3f81fd36136_at_mail.gmail.com>

Good question Mark.

It may be splitting hairs, but there is a distinction that can be
drawn here between a "fall" and a "witnessed fall" - one is usually
considered synonymous with the other, but in my mind a "witnessed
fall" implies a human observer witnessed part of the fall - either the
bolide or the impact or both.

Meteors/meteorites that are imaged with satellites or captured with
radar should be considered "falls", but I wouldn't apply the term
"witnessed fall" to them. As a collector, I am being arbitrary, but I
draw a distinction between falls witnessed by human eyes and falls
imaged or tracked by technology alone.

Ideally, a fall should be seen by human observers and radar or
satellite - like Tagish Lake.

Best regards,

MikeG




On 4/25/09, Mark Crawford <mark at meteorites.cc> wrote:
> I read a definition of a fall as being where the meteor is 'usually seen
> as a fireball' before it lands and is recovered. Obviously, I thought,
> it needs to be seen burning up - that's the very definition of a fall.
>
> I then considered that the definition would strictly be 'observed' to
> fall. One could imagine a scenario where an object may not be witnessed
> by the human eye, but which were otherwise recorded. *Pribram and
> *Innisfree were recorded photographically; Pribram and (I think)
> Innisfree were also witnessed by eye, but if they hadn't been I'd still
> call them falls.
>
> Then I wondered about 2008 TC3. It was observed and projected to impact
> earth, the landing area was calculated. Material was recovered. Now if
> the KLM pilot hadn't seen the fireball, and if the putative Meteosat
> image (*http://tinyurl.com/d4sna5) *hadn't appeared - would this still
> be classed as a fall?
>
> When is a fall not a fall? :)
>
> Mark
> **
>
> --
> Mark's Meteorite Pages: http://meteorites.cc
>
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-- 
.........................................................
Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA)
Member of the Meteoritical Society.
Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network.
Websites - http://www.galactic-stone.com and http://www.glassthrower.com
..........................................................

Received on Sat 25 Apr 2009 04:50:51 PM PDT