[meteorite-list] meteoroid question

From: lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2009 19:51:55 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <a5e5b71865de032216596dbd0545cfec.squirrel_at_webmail.lpl.arizona.edu>

Hi all:

I am involved with a teacher professional development workshop this week
and the teachers give us questions that they hope we can answer for them.
I am fine with most of them (such is Pluto a planet?), but I figured that,
before I give them a partially correct answer, I would ask the experts out
there for their responses:

What is the rate at which things burn up when they enter Earth?s atmosphere?

About how much material is burned up (mass per unit time)?

Along that same idea, for a "typical" chondritic meteoroid, what is the
minimum size that you might expect to make it through the atmosphere and
land as a meteorite? Ballpark is fine since, clearly there are many
factors involved (initial velocity, angle of entry, material strength
etc.).

Thanks in advance.

Larry
Received on Sun 04 Oct 2009 10:51:55 PM PDT