[meteorite-list] Meteoroid/Asteroid Electro-Magnetic Disruption and Charge Properties?

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:08:31 -0700
Message-ID: <512E67BF.5020102_at_alumni.caltech.edu>

Hi Carl-

For the most part, breakup characteristics don't correlate well with
either size or material. I think it's largely a matter of the bulk
properties of the meteoroid- how monolithic versus faulted it is- and
any material can exist on a wide range between those extremes.

For the most part, I'd say if there's any "sweet-spot", it is largely
determined by the same factors that have been seen as key for a long
time- a shallow entry angle, low entry speed, and low altitude terminal
explosion all bode well for meteorite production. Of course, larger
bodies have more material, and might well be expected to yield more
meteorites under equivalent entry conditions. But that's a very broad
generalization. I think that the nature of the terminal explosion of
Chelyabinsk resulted in such tiny fragmentation that something in excess
of 99% of the initial mass was lost. A somewhat stronger body of the
same size might have survived a little longer, slowing enough that the
disruption would be less violent, and a lot more could survive. Consider
that Sikhote-Alin was a smaller body, but much more material survived to
the ground- both because it was materially stronger, and because it
didn't explode until it was much lower.

Chris

*******************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On 2/27/2013 10:42 AM, Carl Agee wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> Do you have any references you could point me to for how break-up
> scales with size-mass-physical properties etc. of meteoroids. I am
> interested in knowing the "sweet-spot" for yielding meteorites on the
> ground. In other words, when is a meteoroid too small or too big to
> produce significant large pieces of surviving material? It seems like
> Chelyabinsk is outside the sweet spot as it apparently produced mostly
> fragments even though it had large mass. On the other hand much bigger
> masses may also survive. Is it bimodal?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Carl Agee
>
>
Received on Wed 27 Feb 2013 03:08:31 PM PST