[meteorite-list] Fireballs & Known Meteor Showers

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:15:26 -0500
Message-ID: <81CCAD26501D4B079659A37E163F361F_at_ATARIENGINE2>

Phil, List,

The Lyrids are April 16 to April 26, but it could be
an early one; or it could be an Alpha Virginid (peaks
April 7 to 15), also a Gamma Virginid (peaks on the
14th and 15th), or an Eta Virginid (lasts for two months),
or a Theta Virginid (lasts for five weeks), a Mu Virginid
(lasts for six weeks), but not an Iota Virginid nor Psi
Viginid (daytime meteors), nor a Lambda Virginid
(very rare), nor a Pi Virginid (they're over by the 14th).

The brightest Lyrid was magnitude +2, pukey weak
compared to the Wisconsin Whizzer, which was
described as "bright as the Sun.".

Virginids are not known for fireballs (I couldn't find
any reference to even one), and spaceweather says it
was definitely NOT a gamma Virginid, the stream that's
peaking now. They say asteroid.

The found stone has been preliminarily identified as
an H chondrite, the most common OC right now.
This is largely because of the recent breakup of the
parent body of 1270 Datura which created an
asteroid family that has been supplying the Earth
with H chondrites for the last 500,000 years or so.

I wonder if the radar track and/or any of the
observations are enough to rough out an orbit?

Probably not.

And Larry beat me to it again.


Sterling K. Webb
--------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "JoshuaTreeMuseum" <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 4:19 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Fireballs & Known Meteor Showers


> Aren't the current meteor showers the Alpha Virginids, not the
> Lyrids? Though I highly doubt their parent body is an H chondrite.
>
> Phil Whitmer
>
> ------------------------
>
> Carl, List,
>
>
>> how we know with certainty that the WI fall is not
>
>> related to the known shower of the same time period?
>
>
> The Wisconsin Stone is a probable H5. The source
> of the Lyrid meteor shower is Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1).
> I doubt that Comet Thatcher is an H5 condrite body.
> It sure don't act like one...
>
> "Certainty" is a tricky term. I've never been to Comet
> Thatcher and drilled into it, so I can't swear you out
> an affidavit that it isn't an H5 body, but the claim that
> it is would be extraordinary.
>
> And extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof,
> as another guy named Carl used to say...
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ______________________________________________
> Visit the Archives at
> http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing-list-archives.html
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Fri 16 Apr 2010 08:15:26 PM PDT