(meteorobs) Re: Meteor picture from Mars?

Ed Majden epmajden at shaw.ca
Sat Jun 11 05:01:31 EDT 2005


on 6/11/05 1:22, Pavol Habuda at bzucino at yahoo.com wrote:

> Mars` atmosphere has less pressure than Earth`s. It means meteors glow
> in lower heights than on Earth. I don`t see no other difference , except
> lower entry velocities of meteoroids.
> Lower velocities, as we know, result in much lower ZHR. So, we
> would see less meteors on Mars than on Earth.
> 
> Physics must be the same, it means meteors look the same as on our planet.
> 
> Pavol Habuda
> 

Paval:

    Why do you say meteoroids entering the atmosphere of Mars have lower
entry velocity?  The velocity of a meteoroid is dependant on its orbit.  The
more distant, the higher the velocity as in the case of shower meteoroids
associated with comets than the ones associated with asteroids.  Yes, escape
velocity is lower on Mars so entry velocity can be lower in some cases.  On
Earth, entry velocity for meteoroids ranges from 72 km/sec down to 11.2
km/sec which is the escape velocity of the Earth.  Mar's escape velocity is
5.0 km/sec so a meteoroid could be as slow as this on entry. If the
meteoroid is in the same orbit, entry velocity on Mars would be a bit lower
for the same meteoroid entering the Earth's atmosphere as Mars is further
from the Sun than the Earth.  Perhaps this is what you were trying to point
out.  It is true that meteoroids will become visible at a lower altitude on
Mars because of the less dense atmosphere on this planet.  Can you explain
why ZHR are lower with lower entry velocities?

Ed Majden



More information about the Meteorobs mailing list