[meteorite-list] Grimsby family shows off visitor from space

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From: ensoramanda at ntlworld.com <ensoramanda_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2009 8:32:42 +0100
Message-ID: <20091017083242.ILSQG.986481.root_at_web04-winn.ispmail.private.ntl.com>

Does this take into account how many cars are garaged at any time?!!!

Graham E, UK

---- "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Hi, Ted, Greg, Gary, List,
>
> > Are we onto something here?
>
> Well, yes, we are. One data point we'd really
> like to have is how many meteorites fall yer year,
> the annual flux. To determine it, all we have to do
> is to stake out a patch of perfectly cleared planet
> and recover and count all the meteorites that fall
> there for several centuries or millennia.
>
> Not so convenient, though... Since the fall of
> meteorites is a random process, the total area of
> the "sampling patch" does not have to be contiguous.
> It can be many millions of smaller patches scattered
> all over the planet. You can even move them around
> randomly -- doesn't affect the accuracy of the final
> calculation of the "impact cross-section of the Earth."
>
> That "sampling patch" is CARS (and trucks, and
> other vehicles). We can get a good idea of the number
> of them year by year. We can closely estimate the mean
> geometric cross-section of the targets. And the "lossiness"
> of the experimental data is reduced by the fact that
> people tend to notice when their shiny pickup truck is
> holed by a meteorite!
>
> I did all that sophisticated arithmetic ten years ago
> and published a paper with the results, exclusively to
> this List (which is why nobody's heard of it). The figure
> widely published back them was the MORP rate of
> 25,530 falls per year, although Zolenski and Wells
> argued in 1988 that it could be much higher:
> http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1990amss.work...91Z
>
> The fall rate that I calculated from this method was
> approximately 78,000 falls per yesr with a possible error
> of 25,000 either way. So few cars get hit. Rob Matson
> chimed in that his personal estimate was a minimum
> of 80,000 per annum. From that rate, I predicted (in1
> Dec., 1999) that there would be at least one car hit in
> the decade 2000-2009 and a better-than-50% chance
> it would be two.
>
> It seems to be two (and just in time).
>
> That was Novemeber or December of 1999, and as we
> close out 2009, Grimsby appears to be the second (Worden
> in 2002 was the first). Getafe (mentioned earlier) is classed
> politely as a pseudometeorite. I allowed for the increase in
> the number of cars in time, based on the 1990's sales rate
> increases.
> .
> I thought that this idea of mine was, as they say,
> "methodologically sweet." I was unreasonably proud of
> being so clever until I discovered this paper by Ben Hur
> Wilson, entitled "A method of estimating the absolute
> number of meteorites," published in 1940 in the old
> POPULAR ASTRONOMY, Vol. 48 (p. 366):
> http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1940PA.....48..366W
> which contains the essence of the method. A new
> idea is hard to come by.
>
> However, Wilson based his numbers on observed falls
> in specific areas which, in 1940, was scanty data. He
> concluded there were 250 falls per year for the entire
> planet!
>
> Nininger disagreed violently with this; he thought
> there were 500 meteorite falls per year (between 1 gram
> and 1 kilogram), perhaps as many as 1,000 and cited
> some of his own statistics from Kansas finds.
>
> It seems that the more data we get, the faster they fall.
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ted Bunch" <tbear1 at cableone.net>
> To: "Gary Fujihara" <fujmon at mac.com>; "Greg Stanley"
> <stanleygregr at hotmail.com>
> Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 4:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Grimsby family shows off visitor from
> space
>
>
> > Apparently, meteorites seek out cars much like tornadoes seek out
> > trailer
> > parks. Are we onto something here?
> >
> > Ted
> >
> >
> > On 10/16/09 11:31 AM, "Gary Fujihara" <fujmon at mac.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Wow! Another car-smashing hammer like Bendl (1938), Peekskill
> >> (1992),
> >> Getafe (1994)!
> >>
> >> gary
> >>
> >> On Oct 16, 2009, at 8:22 AM, Greg Stanley wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> All:
> >>>
> >>> Take a look. Looks like the real deal. A hammer!
> >>>
> >>> Greg S.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> http://beta.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2133932
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> 
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Yvonne and Tony Garchinski are the proud new owners of five
> >>> tiny meteorite fragments.
> >>>
> >>> They also have a new windshield, after the space rock smashed into
> >>> their
> >>> Pathfinder three weeks ago.
> >>>
> >>> "I thought it was vandalism, for sure," said Tony Friday as dozens
> >>> of reporters converged on his west Grismby home. "Who thinks a
> >>> meteorite
> >>> is going to crash-land on your car?"
> >>>
> >>> The golf ball-sized fragment is likely part of a larger meteorite
> >>> that lit
> >>> up the skies of southern Ontario
> >>> Sept. 25.
> >>>
> >>> The fireball was first picked up by cameras operated by the
> >>> University of
> >>> Western Ontario's physics and astronomy department 100 kilometres
> >>> above Guelph
> >>> as it streaked southeastward at a speed of about 75,000 kilometres
> >>> per hour.
> >>>
> >>> Scientists released that footage Oct. 7 and began searching a
> >>> 12-square-kilometre area near Grimsby
> >>> where they thought the meteor fell.
> >>>
> >>> Only after seeing the footage on television did the Grimsby family
> >>> realize their car-bashing
> >>> vandal might instead be an alien invader.
> >>>
> >>> "We filed a police report and everything," said a laughing Yvonne,
> >>> who held out the tiny silver and black space rock pieces for
> >>> reporters to see
> >>> Friday.
> >>>
> >>> After reading up on the meteorite search, Yvonne called Phil
> >>> McCausland, an
> >>> astrophysicist at the University
> >>> of Western Ontario, who
> >>> verified the tiny rocks were out of this world.
> >>>
> >>> "They're probably the oldest rocks that you or I or anyone else are
> >>> every going to hold," McCausland said. "it's pretty exciting."
> >>>
> >>> The Garchinskis own the window-smashing space pebbles, but they've
> >>> agreed to
> >>> loan them to university researchers for three months.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _________________________________________________________________
> >>> Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft.
> >>> http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222986/direct/01/
> >>> ______________________________________________
> >>> http://www.meteoritecentral.com
> >>> Meteorite-list mailing list
> >>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> >>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
> >>
> >> Gary Fujihara
> >> AstroDay Institute
> >> 105 Puhili Place, Hilo, HI 96720
> >> (808) 640-9161, fujmon at mac.com
> >> http://astroday.net
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________
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> >> Meteorite-list mailing list
> >> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> >> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
> >
> >
> > ______________________________________________
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>
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Received on Sat 17 Oct 2009 03:32:42 AM PDT

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