(meteorobs) Another Colorado meteor

[Chris Peterson]

Hi Paco-

I doubt you can say anything about what a meteorite dropper's 
characteristics "must" be. I think there's good evidence that the majority 
of meteorites actually come from rather unimpressive meteors, and those 
generally slow down while still very high.

Observational evidence is biased because witnessed falls associated with 
meteors typically (always?) involve very bright fireballs- otherwise the 
association wouldn't be made. Ceplecha, Jopek, Tatum, and others have 
produced some fine models of the behavior of a meteoroid as it passes 
through the atmosphere, but actually determining what happens when a real 
body, of uncertain material properties, explodes as violently as we see in 
the Colorado fireball is rather beyond our abilities.

While conventional wisdom suggests that the height and speed of this body at 
the point of terminal explosion argue against meteorite formation, I think 
the best answer is that we simply can't say with any certainty. I do know 
that a couple of meteorite hunters are interested in starting a ground 
search. Unfortunately, we have a winter storm coming in today that will drop 
quite a lot of snow in the area over the next few days.

Chris

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


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Francisco Ocaña" <albireo3000 at yahoo.es>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 2:35 AM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Another Colorado meteor


Wow! Great fireball and nice work!

I have a question about the explosion height. I have read many times
that a meteorite dropper bolide must penetrate deeper in the atmosphere,
a height of 30-40km? and also must have low speed? Are these tight
constraints?

Thank you,

Paco Ocaña