[meteorite-list] Meteorites 101

From: Barrett <BarrettWF_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:30:05 -0700
Message-ID: <001501cbb51c$e80c40e0$b824c2a0$_at_net>

The Lerner-Trigg Encyclopedia of Physics, pg.1137 doesn't help much. The ONLY thing they have to say is;
"Meteorites, which occasionally fall to earth, are thought to be mostly fragments of asteroids scattered into earth-orbit crossing trajectories by gravitational resonance interactions, and pieces of comets on other debris moving through the vicinity of Earth. Analyses of meteorites have provided important clues about the formation and early history of the solar system."
NOTHING about the distinction of the three differentiations of this thread.
So much for physics huh? :-)
-Barrett

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of R N Hartman
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 5:54 PM
To: Count Deiro; Walter Branch; Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Cc: Meteorite1
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorites 101

Meteor, meteorite, and meteoioid:

In response to the American Heritage? Science Dictionary Copyright ? 2005
by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, which
is reported here to have stated that the object itself may be termed a
meteor while in flight through the atmosphere, note that dictionaries are
not the authoritative source for what an object is or is not. Dictionaries
reflect only common (popular) usage, and if it is not a technical
dictionary, more so. I remember being told as a student taking a graduate
level course in the History and Development of the English language that
dictionaries may be as much as 50 years behind the times in reflecting
current usage.

Within the informed scientific community, among those who are
meteoriticists, a meteor refers to the light phenomena of the meteoroid
while traversing through our atmosphere, and the object itself remains a
meteoroid until it strikes the Earth or whatever other astronomical body it
intercepts. Then it is referred to a meteorite. Note also the term
micro-meteorites. Sometimes these terms are used incorrectly (and sloppily)
in a popular, or non-technical sense, usually by the layman (or the news
media).

I don't think anyone has or will ever be burned at the stake for referring
to a meteoroid as a meteor, unless they are of course one of my former
students (joke)! But this is the way I have always seen these terms used
when used correctly. This is the way I learned it as a student who received
a degree in Astronomy from U.C.L.A. and who studied under one of the world's
most respected meteoriticists, Dr. Frederick C.Leonard, who by the way was
one of the founders of the Meteoritical Society. (Dr. Leonard was the first
Editor of Meteoritics: the Journal of the Meteoritical Society. And, he was
a perfectionist with the English Language.) I recall a number of discussions
in class over these definitions, such as "what would we call it if we were
carrying a basket, and the meteoroid were to land in the basket, rather than
hitting the Earth. "Dr. Leonard, would it still be a meteoroid?" (He would
respond by clearing his throat with a faint growl, and ignore our question.
But we knew he was fond of us!)

Ron Hartman



----- Original Message -----
From: "Count Deiro" <countdeiro at earthlink.net>
To: "Walter Branch" <waltbranch at bellsouth.net>;
<Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 3:30 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorites 101


> Hi Walter and all,
>
> This may be the acceptable nomenclature....
>
> METEOR (mt-r)
> 1. A bright trail or streak of light that appears in the night sky when a
> meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere. The friction with the air causes
> the rock to glow with heat. Also called shooting star.
> 2. A rocky body that produces such light. Most meteors burn up before
> reaching the Earth's surface. See Note at solar system.
> Usage The streaks of light we sometimes see in the night sky and call
> meteors were not identified as interplanetary rocks until the 19th
> century. Before then, the streaks of light were considered only one of a
> variety of atmospheric phenomena, all of which bore the name meteor. Rain
> was an aqueous meteor, winds and storms were airy meteors, and streaks of
> light in the sky were fiery meteors. This general use of meteor survives
> in our word meteorology, the study of the weather and atmospheric
> phenomena. Nowadays, astronomers use any of three words for rocks from
> interplanetary space, depending on their stage of descent to the Earth. A
> meteoroid is a rock in space that has the potential to collide with the
> Earth's atmosphere. Meteoroids range in size from a speck of dust to a
> chunk about 100 meters in diameter, though most are smaller than a pebble.
> When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, it becomes a meteor. The light
> that it gives off when heated by friction with the atmosphere is also
> called a meteor. If the rock is not obliterated by the friction and lands
> on the ground, it is called a meteorite. For this term, scientists
> borrowed the -ite suffix used in the names of minerals like malachite and
> pyrite.
>
> The American Heritage? Science Dictionary Copyright ? 2005 by Houghton
> Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights
> reserved.
>
> Best to all,
>
> Count Deiro
> IMCA 3536 MetSoc
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Walter Branch <waltbranch at bellsouth.net>
>>Sent: Jan 15, 2011 3:13 PM
>>To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>>Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorites 101
>>
>>Hello Everyone,
>>
>>The term "meteor" refers to the light phenomenon as an object from space
>>enters the Earth's atmosphere. What is the proper term for the object
>>itself?
>>
>>A meteoroid is an object in space. Is it still called a meteoroid when
>>it
>>enters the Earth's atmosphere?
>>
>>-Walter
>>
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Received on Sat 15 Jan 2011 08:30:05 PM PST