[meteorite-list] A Twisted Meteor Trail Over Tenerife
From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 05:57:13 -0600 Message-ID: <C501EFCEDAAB4B399EB34A710D6BF6D9_at_bellatrix> If the trail in the image represents actual motion, we'd be looking at a meteor making lateral or spiral excursions on the order of a kilometer or more at several times per second. That would mean accelerations of around 1000 G, almost certainly greater than the material strength of a meteoroid a few millimeters across. This scenario simply doesn't seem physically plausible. Rotating or tumbling meteors show up as unusual light curves, not as non-linear motion. Chris ***************************************** Chris L Peterson Cloudbait Observatory http://www.cloudbait.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ryan Weidert" <ryan.weidert at gmail.com> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 10:46 PM Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] A Twisted Meteor Trail Over Tenerife Hiya All, I haven't been following this post until now, so im not sure if this has been suggested, but could the meteor have been slowly spinning as it entered? If it had a particular shape, (one side rounded, one flat??), could it have curved/wiggled in a decaying sinusoidal way as it rotated? If you had an object slowly rotating with a curved side and a flat side, would it pull to one side while the curved part was to the side of the fall direction, then switch as it crossed to the other side, dragging it back the other way. If it were slowly rotating, the drag could eventually stabilize the rotation and cause a 'normal' straight fall. Thoughts? Anything to add, tweak or otherwise disprove? I too believe that the wiggle is most likely not from a camera bump. The bump would have had to either happen JUST before or while the exposure ended, or the camera would have to come back to the EXACT place where it started to not show other duplicate starts, building etc. This is quite strange indeed cheers, ryan weidert. Received on Fri 04 Jun 2010 07:57:13 AM PDT |
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