(meteorobs) Information about observed fireballs

[Chris Peterson]

We don't know, unless somebody actually finds a meteorite!

Good indicators are: low initial speed (<30 km/s), shallow entry angle 
(<45°), a terminal explosion, or possibly intermediate fragmentation events. 
Of course, the fireball should be sporadic- many impressive meteors are 
associated with showers, and there's little or no chance of these producing 
meteorites. A really long ground path is probably a good indicator, as well.

Velocity and angle position are usually unreliable if the event isn't 
captured on cameras, although it can be extracted if you have enough witness 
reports (I usually figure that 1 in 10 reports are good enough to trust, so 
you need quite a few; azimuth reports are usually much more trustworthy than 
altitude reports).

It is likely that most meteorites are the product of fairly unremarkable 
fireballs. Most really spectacular fireballs probably don't produce 
meteorites.

Chris

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


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Heitz" <midwestmeteor at earthlink.net>
To: <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 5:59 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) Information about observed fireballs


> Hi,
>
> I'm new to this site, could someone tell me how do we know observed
> fireballs fell to the ground?
>
> How can I use this imformation gathered to determine if any material as 
> made
> it to the ground.
>
> To eliminate boring post and waste space please e-mail me off site.
> TimHeitz at earthlink.net
>
> Best Regards,
> Tim Heitz