(meteorobs) Another Colorado meteor

[Thomas Dorman]

Chris 
Any guess to the size of the meteroid that produced your bolide?
Thomas Dorman
Horizon City, Texas


--- On Mon, 12/8/08, Chris Peterson <clp at alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:

> From: Chris Peterson <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Another Colorado meteor
> To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
> Date: Monday, December 8, 2008, 10:06 AM
> 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
> 
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