[meteorite-list] Fw: Re: - "witness" to July 6 Fireball PA

From: MeteorHntr at aol.com <MeteorHntr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 10:53:18 EDT
Message-ID: <cef.5b480ef7.37875e5e_at_aol.com>

Chris,

How fast is a meteoroid going when it burns out? And at what point in the
flight does it go below the speed of the sound barrier?

I might have been mistaken, but I thought really close to the point of
dark flight it slowed down where the sonic booms stopped being crated as well.

Also, which meteorites in the past do you have record of that traveled
extensively beyond the burn out point?

And how far beyond that point have meteorites continued to fly?

Of course with a 20 mile long strewnfield, the distance of the burn out
spot from the leading and trailing edge could differ greatly.

Steve
 


In a message dated 7/9/2009 9:45:16 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
clp at alumni.caltech.edu writes:
No, witness reports continue to be a big help. In particular, reports
about
sonic booms can be very helpful. It has been observed in many cases that
these tend to be heard only near the fall zone, and this has proved very
useful for a number of meteorite hunters. If you have good information
about
the location of the terminal explosion, the next step is to interview
people
on the ground in an effort to narrow down the search area.

There should be good radiosonde data available in most places as well.
Once
the height of the terminal explosion is determined, this should be used to
model the dark flight. This data can be the difference between an
uncertainty on the ground of a few square miles versus hundreds of square
miles.
 
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Received on Thu 09 Jul 2009 10:53:18 AM PDT