[meteorite-list] Fusion Crusted "Meteoroids"

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:55:06 -0600
Message-ID: <5BEF248B943D4ECDA68FF0D671081EB0_at_bellatrix>

In fact, I think we have a fairly good idea about the rate of meteoroids
intersecting the Earth. The rate of sporadic meteor activity is well known
(this is an area of research I'm involved in), and a power law that
describes size versus rate has also been established. There are a number of
papers analyzing fall rates. Of course, there remains a fairly high
uncertainty in the numbers, but it's probably not more than an order of
magnitude. And given that, it's just a simple geometric analysis to
determine the percentage that are Earth grazers. Finally, the theory
describing the behavior of an object of any given size due to drag and
gravitational perturbation is well known. (An Earth grazer will have its
orbit substantially altered, but any small bodies in the inner Solar System
are having their orbits perturbed as well.)

So on balance, I think it's quite possible to estimate with fair certainty-
far better than a "guess"- how many bodies are in orbit at any time which
have previously grazed a planetary atmosphere.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Meteorites USA" <eric at meteoritesusa.com>
To: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>;
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Fusion Crusted "Meteoroids"


> Good points on the production and destruction rates.
>
> Do we know how many meteoroids crash into the Sun or other planets? The
> moon is a good example to look for a number of impacting meteoroids, but
> it doesn't say how many will graze any given planet though. Unless of
> course you're able to figure a ratio of impacting versus grazing bodies.
> Does crossing through our atmosphere or the atmosphere of another planet
> change the orbit of a meteoroid? I imagine it would right? And would it
> come back to hit us again, maybe at a sharper angle? Or would it throw the
> meteoroid out into the cosmos never to be seen again?
>
> This really does bring up lots of questions...
Received on Wed 25 Mar 2009 03:55:06 PM PDT